


Inkful

by projectghoulma



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, F/M, Gen, Harem, Reverse Harem, Swearing, modern!AU, tattoo artist sakura more specifically, tattooartist!au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2018-10-12 00:40:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10478184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/projectghoulma/pseuds/projectghoulma
Summary: When Sakura gets a phone call from her, now former, room mate and tells her she has three months to officially move out she is livid. Lucky for her that she gets a head start in the seemingly right direction when a close friend and coworker gives her a list that could hopefully hold her future room mate. Unlucky for her that it's among five men she hardly knows.// hiatus





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaaa i've been reading akatsuki/sakura fics for the past couple of days now and i KNOW naruto is dead but let me just have tattoo artist sakura bc she would be totally bad ass with a slew of tats and piercings and just???? i love her okay?!!

The constant hum of the machine in her hands was a constant comfort to Sakura, even if she could barely hear it over the radio station her coworker had chosen for the day and the inconsistent chatter of both her client and the of her coworker. She quickly glanced up at the dark haired beauty in her chair, offering what she hoped was a comforting grin, before wiping away any of the excess ink as she continued to work. The design was simple enough, if a bit cheesy in her opinion, and she had been skeptical when the girl had confessed it was her first piece of permanent art but everything was going surprisingly smooth. Even the extra person that had come for moral support remained silent for the most part so Sakura could focus properly.

"I'm almost done," she murmured, brows furrowing slightly as she gave the skin another wipe. "You're doing great."

The girl smiled weakly, her crystalline eyes watering as the needle ran over a particularly sensitive spot on her shoulder blade.

"How does it look?" she asked tentatively, giving her friend's hand a squeeze.

"Really good," she said, watching Sakura's steady hands intently. "Your boyfriend is gonna flip when he sees it."

Sakura felt the corner of her mouth twitch at the gentle giggle her client released and sat back to wipe her sweaty forehead on her arm. "Done," she said with finality before turning the machine off. "You did absolutely amazing considering it was your first time. Just give me a sec to cover it and you're good to go."

She gave her client a toothy grin before shredding her gloves and reaching over her work space for the needed materials. Sakura helped the girl sit up and covered it with a clear looking plastic before taking a picture for her portfolio. "Leave this on for at least one hour but no more than two before cleaning it. Use a mild antibacterial cleanser to keep it from getting infections," she said, walking with them to the front of the tattoo parlor before finishing up her speech. "If you have any questions give us a call here and one of us here will be more than happy to help."

Her client smiled and thanked her profusely as she paid for the service, "Can you add twenty five dollars to the tip, please? I'll definitely be coming back for more pieces from you."

"Oh," Sakura exclaimed, feeling her face flush. "Thank you so much! I look forward to working with you again!"

She bid the two a good day before heading back to clean her supplies, methodically removing any sort of unnecessary clutter in her work space and making sure she had fresh supplies for her upcoming clients. Two of them were consultations, back to back, and weren't going to be there for another hour or so but she wanted to be prepared just in case they decided on anything from her stock photos. After a minute she could hear the laughter of her coworker, boisterous as ever, as he finished up and went to ring up his client.

"Thanks, have a good day!" He called out, the bell on the door signaling that they were now the only two left in the store. "Oi, Sakura, how'd your thing go?"

She couldn't help but smile as she made her way to the front of the shop for the second time, moving to lean against the far counter that held a lot of their piercing options. "Really well, actually. The girl took it like a fuckin' champ. What about you, heard a lot of laughter back there, Naruto."

He snorted, waving his hand to dismiss the implication of her words. "It turned out great, Kiba's familiar with how I work by now."

"True," Sakura said, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as reached up to pull her soft pink hair into a messy ponytail. "When do you think you could fit me in to finish up my sleeve, I'm pretty sure we just need to finish up some detailing."

"Hmmm," Naruto stood back for a moment, staring intently at the tattoos that poked out from beneath her tshirt. "A couple more details should be good, I'm all booked up until I start my vacation next week though so it won't be until sometime after."

"That's fine, there's no rush," Sakura said, fingering one of her ear piercings in thought. "Just put me on the schedule for when you get back and lemme know."

"Sure thing!" Naruto exclaimed, a grin on his face as he gave her a thumbs up. "How's the room mate thing, by the way. Last I heard about it she started dating someone?"

Sakura rolled her eyes, externalizing an exasperated groan as she pushed herself up to sit on the counter. As she was about to speak, she felt her phone vibrate against the glass of the counter and immediately rushed to see who was calling her personal contact during work hours. "Speaking of," she murmured, quickly answering the call. "Hey Karin, what's up? Okay sure, hold on."

She quickly got back down onto her feet and gave Naruto an apologetic smile, "Sorry, I'm going to take this in the back. Let me know if my next client comes in early."

He nodded knowingly before giving her a thumbs up and turned to go through the schedule the two of them had for the day and possibly tomorrow.

Sakura turned back to her phone, carefully making her way towards the back as she focused most of her attention on her room mates voice. "Okay, what's up? Did something happen?"

"Sorry for calling you while you're at work," Karin said, her words strained as if she didn't really mean them. "But I just wanted to let you know I'm moving in with my boyfriend at the end of month."

"Okay?" Sakura questioned, confusion covering her tone.

She could practically hear the eye roll she was sure Karin was giving her over her confusion.

"Which means I need you to move out by the time we renew the lease."

"I-- what?!" Sakura felt her neck heat up in pure anger and her voice raise more than a couple octaves. "Are you kidding me?"

"Sorry, but his apartment is shit. I'm sure you understand."

She looked up when she saw something in her peripheral, nodding at Naruto when he whispered her next clients were here, and then quickly up at the clock. Her next client was more than ten minutes early and normally she would have been thrilled if it weren't for the bombshell her now ex room mate had dropped on her.

Sakura waved at Naruto to let him know she would be there shortly, attempting to steady her breathing. "Okay. Yeah. By the time the lease is up."

"Thank you, Sakura."

With that, Karin had hung up and Sakura groaned into her balled up fists before immediately yelling out in anguish. She took a deep breath, setting her phone down on the back table before she had the urge to throw it and break another one in a fit of rage.

"Fuck. Alright, this is fine. I can get through today and.." Sakura groaned again, kicking the already battered chair that sat in the back room, purely to abuse in times of frustration, before immediately picking it up and throwing it against the side door. "Fuck!"

Taking another deep breath she forced a smile on her face and glanced up at the clock before making her way towards the front of the store. She forced herself to hum in an attempt to calm down as she stepped into the sunny store front. She caught Naruto's eyes, briefly, and he let out a nervous laugh before turning back to one of the two men that had walked in just minutes before who were now looking over some of the different stock photos and the selection of piercings they offered.

"Sorry for the wait," Sakura said, her voice strained and sickeningly sweet as she checked the client book they had up front. "How can I help you?"

The two she guessed were her clients gave each other a quick glance before moving to stand across from where she stood behind the piercings and Sakura rose a brow as they stood before her, looking over the two of them as they introduced themselves and gave her a brief description on what they wanted. The three of them quickly got started as Sakura brought them back to her work space in one of the adjacent rooms where they could talk more privately. Both of them had decided they wanted complimentary pieces for their upper backs with contrasting colors and Sakura had informed them of the price range they were looking at as well as the possible time she would need to spend on each piece. After a couple more minutes of discussion, she had a rough sketch done to show them and told them she would work on getting a cleaner sketch for their next appointment before they would start on the actual tattooing. Sakura smiled as they both beamed with excitement and bid them farewell as they headed out.

She glanced at the clock hanging in the front of the shop and sighed, draping herself over the cool glass of one of the counters. Naruto had left an hour ago, leaving her to watch the place until they closed for the night. It had gotten late relatively fast, as she went through basically two consultations at once, and she hummed at the thought of closing up for the night early. She didn't have any other clients scheduled for the day and she honestly doubted anyone would want anything they offered service wise with only two hours until they closed.

Sakura stood again as she quickly went to retrieve her phone from the back, checking through any messages or calls she may have missed when working. She hummed again, leaning forward onto the counter as she went through some of the emails she had received throughout the day, the majority being responses to some rough sketches of tattoo designs. "Crap, forgot to tell Naruto about it," she murmured to herself, eyes narrowing as she recognized half of the people in her inbox as ones she found particularly unsavory for her tastes.

She glanced up momentarily as she saw a small group stop in front of the store and point to it before making the decision to walk inside. Sakura quirked an eyebrow and pocketed her phone in her back pocket before glancing at the time again. Still an hour and a half before she had to close up. The bell above the door came to life as three men came in and, much to her surprise, found herself recognizing two of them.

"Can I help you?" She asked, not moving from her spot behind the counter as she eyed the group of three.

One of them gave her a quick glance and froze, surprise covering his features as he stepped towards her.

"Sakura?" He asked, almost unsure if it really was her, but the way his eyes held on her infamous pink hair told her her knew. "Sakura Haruno?"

She stood up straight from her earlier position of leaning against the counter and gave her old friend a dazzling smile, "Sasuke, it's nice to see you again."

Sasuke hummed in thought, ignoring the stares he felt from his older brother and his friend, as he gave her a once over. He definitely remembered the pink hair and her practically emerald green eyes, but it was another thing entirely to see her face and ears covered in piercings and the tattoos that adorned her skin and left only, from what he could see anyway, her face and right arm a vacant canvas.

"When did you move back to Konoha?" He asked, an unfamiliar glint in his eye.

"I could ask you the same question," Sakura teased, bringing a hand to finger the jewelry in her ear. "I got back after my apprenticeship about a year ago."

"I thought you wanted to become a doctor?" He blurted and, after a moment, felt his cheeks flush at his words.

Sakura laughed before leaning her palms against the glass and grinned. "I did, but things just didn't work out that way for me. So, is there anything I can help you with? We offer piercings and tattoos, obviously, but I'm afraid there isn't time to do any original pieces that aren't already in my stock portfolio."

Sasuke felt his brother and his friend walk up beside him and watched as Sakura drifted her attention to his older sibling with a welcoming smile gracing her features.

"Itachi, wasn't it? It's been such a long time, how've you been?"

He nodded, a faint pleasantness on his features as he regarded her. "I've been well."

Sakura glanced over to the third man and studied him for a moment, tilting her head to the side as something about him felt familiar to her. "Didn't you come in a couple of weeks ago asking about the different plug sizes and the best way to do that?"

The man gave her a grin, obviously pleased she remembered. "Sure was, your advice really helped by the way."

Sakura nodded her head and let her own giddiness take over her features. "Good to hear!"

"I was wondering what your rates were for original works," Itachi asked. "You mentioned you did that."

"It depends on how big and complex it is but my starting price is fifty for an original work not part of my stock. If you want we can schedule a consultation for later in the week to discuss what you wanted to get done and exact pricing." She said, moving to grab the schedule book from beneath the register. "I have Thursday free from one to three and I have Friday open in the morning from ten to noon."

"Friday at ten would be perfect," Itachi said, taking his phone out to set a reminder. "What about piercings, what do you offer for those?"

"Again, it kind of depends on what you want. Facial piercings cost more but they all start at twenty five. We offer a deal if you get two piercings that's basically a two for one."

Itachi hummed and glanced down at his phone. "I see. Shisui, didn't you want something done?"

"Oh," He smiled, leaning over the counter. "Can I take that Thursday one at two?"

"Sure!" Sakura exclaimed, penciling them both into her schedule. "I'm sorry, but can I get both of your numbers to write down? It's so we can make sure to give reminders in advance."

The two of them nodded before they gave their numbers, one after the other, and immediately thanked her for her time.

"It's not a problem at all! Thank you so much for stopping by, it was really nice to see you guys again. Have a nice night!" She waved goodbye as they headed out, the bell signaling their leave and finally the end of the day.

She sighed and stretched her arms up above her head, reveling in how her elbows and back popped from having been hunched over most of the day. Sakura changed the station to her favorite as she closed up, taking everything that needed safe keeping to the back office and finally locking the front door, turning off the main overhead lights as she made to leave.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friends can be helpful, too, even if they don't know social cues or when to not say things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaaaa as I was proofreading/fixing errors I decided at the last minute (in the last couple of paragraphs, even) to change how I wanted things to go down so now I have to rewrite bits of the next part before I post it. I'm think of maybe either once a week or once every two weeks to post updates for this;;; also supes interested in maybe getting a beta reader to help with proofreading to catch any additional mistakes I might miss during my initial readthrough. who knows though lol
> 
> anyway;;; I hope you like it!

The drive home didn't take as long as Sakura had hoped it would, wondering if she was going to see if Karin was home or not, and she pointedly decided to stay in the car a little bit longer with her head down on the steering wheel as she tried to figure out what she needed to do about her living arrangement. Sakura groaned, biting her cheek in an attempt to keep her anger in check. Karin wanted her out by the time they needed to renew the lease, which meant three months to try and find a place that met her undeniably high standards for a living space.

"Fuck," she murmured, clenching her fists. "Fuck!" She yelled, tone harsh and short within the confines of her tiny car.

After a moment to calm herself down, Sakura got out of her car and headed inside to her apartment on the third floor. When she finally got inside, she shoved her canvas shoes into the closet by the door and called out she was home to see if Karin happened to be home too. Frowning at the lack of response, Sakura went to the kitchen and saw a note on the fridge with Karin's messy handwriting.

"Sorry, staying at my boyfriends tonight," Sakura read aloud, brows furrowing in irritation. "Please start getting your stuff moved out by the end of the month. Thanks for the past year or so you were a great roomie."

Sighing, Sakura crumpled up the note and tossed it in the trash. "'Great roomie' my ass," she murmured.

After a minute or two of sulking in the kitchen, Sakura went to grab her laptop to properly check all of her emails before she started dialing Naruto's number to talk him about it; grumbling under her breath as she heard the other line ring and then connect.

"Yo," Naruto picked up almost immediately and Sakura could hear the idle chatter in the background. "What's up, Sakura?"

"I guess I don't have to worry about my current roomie anymore," Sakura said immediately, eyes narrowing at some of the junk mail in her main inbox. "She's basically kicking me out."

"What? Why the hell would she do that?" He asked, incredulous.

Sakura hummed, deleting another email about a package she ordered. "She wants to move in with her boyfriend but I guess his apartment is shit. Kinda glad I still haven't met the guy otherwise I'd be more pissed off than I already am."

"Right," Naruto said, sounding far away for a moment before coming back full force. "Fuck, Sakura, that sucks. When do you need to leave?"

"She said by the time we have to renew the lease, probably so she can take my name off of it but to be real with you I want to at least have all of my stuff out by the end of the month."

"Yeah I can see that, I'll be happy to help with anything when I get back from vacation and let Sai know about it? I know he mentioned the other day at work a couple of his friends were looking for room mates."

"That'd be great, actually, thank you." Sakura said, sitting back in her chair. "God. What's up with you, though? How'd that thing go?"

"Oh! Pretty good, did you know Sasuke's back? I saw him a little bit ago with his brother.

"Oh, yeah, they stopped by at the shop for a little bit. I have Itachi and one of his friend scheduled for a consultation later in the week."

"Sakura, you clever girl," Naruto crooned, laughter punctuating his teasing remark. "I set up drinks with him Friday night after the shop closes with some others, you're welcome to join us if you'd like. Maybe do some snooping to see if anyone is in need of a killer room mate?"

"Naruto, you sneaky fox." Sakura giggled despite herself and, after a few more words, hung up after a cheerful good night.

Sakura let herself stay up for another half hour before deciding to head to bed, making sure both her laptop and phone were plugged into the charger. She went through her usual night time routine: shower, cup of tea, brush her teeth, cool down stretch; before finally slipping underneath her light pink covers.

When she had woken up, Sakura was greeted with relative silence and found she still had at least twenty more minutes until her alarm went off. She groaned, running a hand through her pink hair, and sat up as she mulled over her options. It was still relatively early, only ten after eight, and she guessed she could start her daily workout early in favor of more sleep. She was awake now anyway and, ultimately, if she went back to bed she'd end up putting her entire daily routine back by another half hour at least.

She got up and stretched, humming at the sound of her back popping, before changing into a set of spandex yoga pants and a tank top that had a distressed logo of one of her favorite bars in town, along with her tennis shoes she saved for work outs only. After another couple of minutes, she stretched properly and grabbed a water bottle and her iPod before making the trek down to her car.

On her drive to the gym, she kept her mind busy and wondered if the staff were offering any classes she may be interested in taking coming up within the next couple of weeks. It was either that or stew on the fact she was very much being cheated out of her living space simply because her room mates boyfriend lived in a sub par space. Sakura felt her jaw clench and her grip tighten on the steering wheel; she would just have to focus on a more intense work out today to get it out of her system before she went into work for the day.

The gym was relatively nice, in her opinion, in the fact that it had everything Sakura needed for her training regimen she had started during her junior year of high school; everything from cardio to her intense weight training to the martial art classes they held twice a week. It never ceased to excite her, no matter how long she continued the exercises.

"Yo, Haruno, it's been a while."

Sakura turned to one of the staff members and her friend, Tenten, leaning against the front counter with an easy grin gracing her otherwise usually stern features.

"Hey!" She gave the brunette a high five and let her bag fall to the ground by her feet. "Just the person I wanted to see."

Her friend gave her a wry smile, "Yeah? What's up?"

"What do the upcoming classes look like? Anything fun or interesting that might pique my interest?"

Tenten hummed in thought before she turned to the schedule on the computer, drumming her fingers against the counter top. "Actually, there's a couple dance classes you might be interested in." She said, glancing at her green eyed friend. "And of course a couple of self defense stuff aaand- Ooh! We're starting to offer yoga sessions throughout the morning starting at six."

Sakura nodded, "Any possibility you can email me the list of times so I can work around my work schedule?"

"Yeah, that's no problem! Oh, crap, I have to go. Enjoy your work out, Sakura." Tenten told her, her gaze narrowing into a glare somewhere over Sakura's shoulder.

Sakura grinned, picking her bag up, and headed towards the locker room. Sakura had recognized a few other regulars that liked to frequent the gym, giving them small waves or nods as she walked passed them. It wasn't necessarily a club where everyone hung out but, eventually, after you took a lot of the same classes or lessons the gym offered you were going to become relatively close with a few or, at least, start to recognize the familiar faces. Most of the time the ones she hung out with outside of her time at the gym were the ones she became close with in the classes they ended up taking together, and ninety percent of that time was spent at one of the clubs or bars that were around the area.

She dropped her bag off in one of the lockers, making sure it was securely locked, before heading back out. She figured cardio would be the perfect warm up before she started any of her more intense training with weights. Sakura pulled her hair into a ponytail, grimacing at the way her hair felt, as she made her way onto one of the tread mills that occupied the first floor of the building.

While listening to some of her more 'angry' music, Sakura lost herself in the steady thrum of her movement as she jogged at a pace comfortable for her. She hadn't known how long she had been running when she finally realized someone had been trying to get her attention.

"Ah, yes?" She asked, voice breathless, as she paused the machine and pulled her ear buds out.

The man gave her a once over, clearly impressed with what he saw, before snapping violet eyes back to hers.

"Can I help you?" She asked again, checking her phone for the time.

"How long are you gonna be?" He snapped, an approving glint in his eye.

Sakura felt her cheeks flush, she had been running for nearly forty minutes without even realizing it. "Five more minutes, I want to make it an even ten."

A flash of irritation fell over his features and he scoffed before turning away. "Fine."

She narrowed her eyes at his back before returning to her work out, ignoring the stare she knew she was receiving from the creep. Sakura felt like she had seen him a couple of times around the gym, although never consecutively and almost always during the dead hours of morning when she was coming in and he was heading out. She thought that maybe they had shared a couple of martial art and self defense classes before, but she wasn't sure. Or, maybe, she just knew a lot of really tall guys with violet eyes and silver hair who happened to be total creeps.

When she was finished, Sakura stopped the machine and took a minute to catch her breath. She had only meant to do a fifteen minute run before doing any weights but that went well out the window considering she had to be at work in a little under an hour. Sakura turned to get off and was immediately met with the same silver haired guy from before, his well toned arms crossed over his chest as he tapped his fingers impatiently against a well defined bicep.

"Sorry, thanks for waiting." Sakura said, pulling her damp tank top away from her skin in an attempt to cool herself down and ignored the heat rising in her cheeks as she forced her eyes away from his arms. She watched as his eyes did a similar motion to hers when his gaze went from her cleavage and to match her stare, that same approving smirk gracing his features, and she couldn't help when her brows rose at the audacity of this guy.

"No prob, pinky, the view made it worth it."

Her surprise quickly turned into an irritated scowl and she pushed passed him, ignoring the rise of temperature at the back of her neck. She heard him chuckle behind her and whistle before she was out of ear shot and clenched her fists. Maybe she would just call in she would be an hour late and work with the punching bag for a bit to ease the anger. She sighed and decided against it, she was pretty sure Sai was working today and he definitely wouldn't let it go if she did.

Sakura changed out of her work out clothes and showered at the gym, changing into jeans and a black tshirt with her shops logo on the back, before heading out. Her hair was toweled off as best as she could and pulled into a loose bun at the top of her head in an attempt to keep her shirt from getting wet. On her way out, she saw the silver haired guy on the tread mill he had taken after her, and bit her tongue to keep from calling out her anger at his earlier behavior as she pushed open the door to the sunny outside. Sakura allowed herself to show off her shit-eating grin as she strolled to her car, overjoyed he could see her from where he was stationed inside, and promptly flipped him off before hopping in and driving away.

When she arrived at work, Sakura was fairly sure it would be a productive day considering she had been booked up for nearly the entire morning. Two consultations and three piercings later it was barely eleven and she wouldn't be having lunch for another two hours. Sai was, indeed, on the schedule and was in the process of filling the register with what they needed for the day when she came in through the side door. They worked in relative silence aside from the radio stations they played which Sai usually left for Sakura to decide.

Currently, both of them were sitting up front; Sakura was dusting and cleaning the windows of the storefront while Sai busied himself with restocking and changing price listings for some upcoming deals their manager had decided to offer to help get rid of their stock.

"Naruto had told me about your room mate troubles," Sai offered after a while, shutting the backing to one of the counters. "I know a couple of people who are looking for a new mate in their own living spaces if you would like their contact information."

Sakura glanced over her shoulder at her coworker, surprise covering her features. "Oh! That'd be perfect, Sai, thank you."

He nodded, not choosing to say anything else after a moment before going into the back to grab something else. When he returned he had his phone in hand and started to write something down on a scratch piece of paper. Sakura took a second to look over at the last of the windows she would need to clean and hummed.

"I did not know if you were willing to live with other men, considering-" He glanced up at his friend and when he felt her eyes on him, only offering a smile in an attempt to ease any anger he may have inadvertently caused. "Considering they are men."

Sakura snorted and rolled her eyes as she finished wiping down the door. "Men are fine as long as they aren't gross about living with a girl."

"I see," Sai murmured to himself, writing down more numbers for her. "There are five total and three of them already have one room mate but are looking for a third to help cover any additional charges. Two of them have an extra space for you and the other does not, although I'm fairly certain the third is looking for a bigger space in general so another room mate is ideal for their situation."

Sakura hummed as she moved to stand across from him, glancing down at the list of names and numbers she would have to call later. She was fairly impressed by the number of people she could ask about the spare space and felt relief when she actually recognized three out of the five names he had written down, having either met or heard about them in passing throughout her companionship with Sai.

"If you would like, I can let them know you are inquiring about the position and give them your contact information so they can properly set up a time for you to meet. Of course with the intent of letting them know about your schedule."

"Nothat's okay, I'll call during my lunch and leave a message if they don't pick up." She gave him a friendly smile, genuinely relieved she wouldn't have to go through any listings online. "Thank you so much, Sai, this really means a lot to me."

He gave her a gentle smile in return and nodded his head, pushing the paper closer to his companion. "It is not a problem, Sakura. We have grown close since working together and I would consider it an inconvenience if you are not in relatively good spirits while we are working together."

Sakura felt her brow twitch as the smile on her features became strained at his words and slowly began to reach over the counter so she could take hold of Sai's hand. She gripped it, frighteningly tight, and enjoyed the hint of panic that flashed through his features when he realized she would not be letting go anytime soon.

"Thank you, Sai." She said again, her words falsely sweet. "I appreciate your kind words." She gave his hand another death squeeze before finally letting go and clapping her own hands together. "Alrighty! I'll be taking my lunch now!"

"Okay," Sai said, carefully moving his hand away from her as she walked passed him towards the back. "Enjoy your lunch, Sakura."

Sakura sighed after she was out of ear shot from Sai and sat in the back office, murmuring to herself out of irritation as she took out her phone and glanced over the list. Five people meant five chances she wouldn't have to go on craigslist, or anywhere else, to look for listings that she knew would only make her skin crawl. Three of them she recognized, two of which she had already met and could possibly feel comfortable in living with while the third she felt like she had heard Sai mention a handful of times. After a passing second she let out a sigh and dialed the first number, eyeing Sai's incredibly neat scrawl of numbers and letters.

She was honestly excited to be met with their voicemail, "Hello there, this is Sakura Haruno, I work with Sai and he was telling me you were looking for a new room mate. Please call me back to let me know if the listing is still available or not. Thank you." She left her name for a second time and her then number before hanging up. "Rinse and repeat," she murmured to herself as she dialed the second number on the list.

Sakura repeated her little speech two more times until she had reached someone who hadn't appeared to be busy. It had rang a lot longer than she thought it would, expecting to be greeted with yet another automated voice, before the dial tone ended and someone answered.

"Hello?" the voice asked, their tone pleasantly fake for anyone on the other end.

"Hi there, I'm calling for Sasori? This is Sakura Haruno, I work with Sai and he told me that you were looking for a room mate, I was just calling to see if the space was still available."

"Oh," the voice, Sasori she guessed, sounded genuinely surprised about the call. "Yeah, okay. He said something about that but I wasn't expecting anything so soon. We just finished looking for a bigger space and need another person to help cover bills and stuff. I can give you the address to meet up or we can find something else that would fit your schedule, maybe? Sai mentioned when he asked me about that you were usually pretty busy."

Sakura hummed as she wrote down the address, "I have tomorrow off, I can stop by the place around noon to check it out and ask any other questions I might have. If noon doesn't work I can do a little bit later but nothing after two."

"Noon tomorrow is perfect," Sasori said after a moment of muffled hollering. "I'll be there and so will some of the others."

The two spoke for a couple more minutes as Sasori answered any of the questions she had off the top of her head. Sakura found out that there would be six house members total, including her if she decided to move in, and that the rent would be split up six ways and they would discuss other bills after they had settled and fully moved in. When she had explained about her particular situation and the lease Sasori readily told her they wouldn't need her to officially move in for about a month since one of their other house mates had a similar situation.

"Alrighty, I think that's it," Sakura murmured after a moment. "Thank you for taking the time to answer all of my questions. I'll see you tomorrow at noon, then."

"That sounds great, see you then." Sasori said, his voice wavering just a bit as they exchanged good byes and hung up.

Sakura leaned back in the office chair and pushed some stray hairs back behind her ear. Well, that was a hell of a head start for her living situation, she mused, and wondered if she should even bother with the last name on the list Sai had given her. Humming, she decided against it and called anyway to be met with another voicemail. She tapped her pen on the pad of paper she had, staring down at her poor penmanship and the address of what she hoped would soon be her new residence as the automated voice rambled on about how to leave a message like she had never done it before in her entire life. When she heard the beep Sakura gave her little speech for hopefully the last time.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting new people can be good; recognizing people can be even better. Hopefully nothing ruins a proper good first impression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> took a break in writing and now I'm back on it;; reworking on some of the future chapters I had already written bc I changed my mind about something but it's going. also working on setting up a posting/update schedule to make things easier/help put things into focus for me for some of my future works as well as this one. 
> 
> yeehaw cowboys

The day had drug on at an insanely slow pace even after Sakura had left an hour early after she had finished her last client of the day and had found out the two after had called in and rescheduled for sometime in the following weeks. Sai had, eventually, told her to leave and insisted he could lock up on his own with only an hour left in their work day.

When she had gotten home, Sakura found her apartment empty with yet another note from Karin saying she wouldn't be home until Thursday night and that she would be with her boyfriend. Sakura rolled her eyes and tossed the note in the garbage to accompany the other one from the day before. She went into her room to take stock of what she had and sighed; it wasn't a lot in the slightest but still way too much for her to take care of by herself. Not to mention she would need to get boxes from somewhere to fit all of her crap into. Letting out a defeated sigh, Sakura quickly changed in to some pajamas and went to bed. She would have a long day tomorrow.

When she woke up, Sakura was greeted with six missed calls and groaned. Four of them didn't look familiar to her at all and she could only hope they belonged to the people she had called yesterday and two of them were from the shop. Only five of the calls had an accompanying voicemail to them.

She hummed, calling back the shop immediately as she had recognized Naruto's distressed voice when he had asked her to call back as soon as she could, both times and three minutes a part from ten minutes ago.

"Team Seven Tattoos, this is Naruto. How can I help you?"

"Naruto?" Sakura asked while sitting up to stretch. "What's going on?"

"Sakura!" Naruto yelled, excitement edging into his voice. "I know it's your day off but someone was asking for you. I told them you weren't coming in today but they insisted to wait, they're still here."

"What? Who is it?" Sakura asked, suspicion ebbing into her tone.

"Ah, let me ask," Naruto said, words rushed as he yelled out into the shop. Sakura snickered when she heard Kakashi tell him to quiet down. "Tsunade? Do you know them?"

"Oh," Sakura exclaimed, glancing at the time. It was only eight thirty but she wanted to make the gym by nine to fit in her work out before her meeting with Sasori at noon. "Tell her that if she would like I can come in today at two and fit her in then or take care of her early tomorrow morning before we open."

She heard him call Tsunade over and relay the information before she started changing out of her sleep wear and into a pair of grey sweat pants and a dark red tank top. She was in the middle pulling a brush through her tangled tresses when she heard Naruto speak again.

"What time tomorrow morning?"

"Earliest I'll be able to get there would be nine thirty." Sakura said, packing a change of clothes in her bag before heading out. "She should have my contact info, just tell her to call me when she can to confirm what time."

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked, attention to her.

"Yeah, write it down for her if she doesn't. Her schedule is sporadic so let her know I'm sorry for the inconvenience but I can't miss my appointments today."

"Okay, she said tomorrow morning would be perfect and she'll call you later tonight to reconfirm."

"Thank you, Naruto," Sakura grinned and got into her car. "You're the best."

"No problem, enjoy your day off Sak!"

The two hung up without another word and Sakura hummed as she started for the gym, taking care to avoid most of the traffic. When she arrived, she gave the staff member behind the counter a nod of acknowledgement as she flashed her badge and continued on inside. As she walked, Sakura glanced around the area and felt her features turn into a scowl before she could properly stop herself when she recognized the same guy from yesterday doing a set of weights. Moving on, Sakura deposited her bag in the locker room before heading back out and forced the thought of him out of her mind, hoping he would move on from the area by the time she got there.

Sakura had missed her weight training yesterday and bit her tongue when she found herself nearing the man from yesterday and made sure her music was loud enough so she wouldn't be able to hear anyone attempt to talk to her. It was an hour or so before she felt someone sit behind her on the bench, their back only slightly touching hers as they did whatever set they needed to do. A quick glance behind her told her it was the same man from yesterday and kept herself from rolling her eyes. Sakura felt him shift away from her so they were no longer touching and she stood, moving to put her weights back onto their designated rack. She could feel his violet eyes on her figure as she moved past him and glanced up at the clock; she was more than pleased to see she still had time to shower and get through traffic to still be early to the meeting with Sasori.

The drive to the house was uneventful aside from getting nearly hit when she had stopped to get gas. When she had arrived she saw checked the address to see if it was the right one before remembering she had at least four other voice mails she hadn't gone through. She listened, excitement bubbling in her when three of them confirmed they had asked Sai to help them look for room mates only for it to die down entirely when they all said they had found someone already. The last voice mail was from Sasori who had called to remind her of the time and address where she needed to meet at, also letting her to know to call when she arrived.

Sakura hummed and dialed his number, her gaze focused on the house in front of her. It was surprisingly large and looked rather spacious from what she could tell from her spot on the side of the road. Her phone let her know when it was ringing and, after a moment, she heard someone answer.

"Hello?"

She squinted at the house, not recognizing the voice as one belonging to Sasori, before replying. "This is Sakura, is Sasori there?"

"Oh he's driving, yeah? Who's this?" The voice asked, voice giddy on the other end.

"This is Sakura Haruno, I'm supposed to meet with Sasori at noon." Sakura glanced at the clock on her dashboard, it was just a couple minutes shy of being twelve.

"We're almost there, yeah? The others should be there already, though. Just keep yourself busy."

"Sure, I'll see you soon then." Sakura said, her gaze still trained on the digital clock in her car.

"Oi, lady, you need to--"

Sakura let out a strangled yelp when someone entered her peripheral, their voice loud and threatening, before her instincts and gut reaction told her to drop her phone and reach out with an extended fist into the person's stomach. She could faintly register the voice through her phone yell in alarm that they would be there soon before she saw the screen go dark, signaling the call had ended. The stranger wheezed and took a large step back from her car, doubling over as he covered his stomach before letting out a string of curses.

"What the fuck's your god damned problem?"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Sakura exclaimed, getting out of her car. She glanced up to see someone else heading over before focusing back onto the strangely familiar figure curling in on himself. "Are you okay?"

"You fucking punched me!" he bit out, flinching away from the sudden feel of what he could only guess were the girl's hands on his back.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry! Try to stand up, bending over like that makes it harder to breathe." She said, helping him stand straighter. "Are you okay?"

The man gave her a strangled grunt that preceded a lot of colorful curses, his violet eyes glaring daggers into her own. "I'm fucking peachy, princess."

Sakura let out a nervous laugh when she saw someone pull up beside her car before a red head and a blonde hurriedly stepped out to face them. She gave them a wary smile, her nerves fraying from the man still slightly winded from the unexpected blow and the probability these were the people she would be living with.

"What happened to you, yeah?" The blonde asked, eyeing who Sakura assumed was his friend before his blue eyes snapped to her green ones. "Who are you?"

"The girl that hit him." The man from behind her said, letting out a deep laugh.

"Fuck off, Itachi," he wheezed and let our more curse words, she wasn't sure if they were directed towards her or any of the others.

Sakura's eyes widened and glanced over at the man behind her and let out another nervous laugh as she recognized the familiar Uchiha. She quickly met the gaze of the red head and swallowed before she began to run a hand over her arm.

"What happened?"

"He startled me and I reacted!" Sakura blurted out, waving her hands to gesture towards the silver haired male beside her. "It was an accident, I swear!"

The blonde let out a snort of laughter and attempted to hide his ever growing smirk. "What's the matter, Hidan? Having trouble, yeah?"

"Are you Sakura?" The red head asked, a smile playing on his lips as he took in Hidan's distressed form before fully turning his attention onto her.

"Ah, yes," She said nervously, wiping her unusually sweaty palms on her jeans. "I'm Sakura Haruno. It's nice to meet you."

"You're the chic that flipped me off yesterday at the gym." Hidan finally said, his voice still a tad bit strained as he glared at her.

The blonde let his grin grow uncontrollably as he whipped his attention to her and let out an uncontrollable stream of laughter, "Oh my god! Your the girl he was talking about from yesterday, yeah? And you just fuckin' punched him in the gut!"

Sakura let out a slight chuckle and ran a hand through her hair, "I guess so. And here I was worried about my first impression."

"I'm Deidara, yeah?" The blonde managed through his intense laughter, bending over himself as he struggled to catch his breath.

Sasori looked his friend over before shaking his head and turning his attention back to the pink haired woman in front of him. "Looks like you've met everyone except for Kisame, if you want I can give you a tour of the house so you can make your decision."

"That'd be great, actually," Sakura said quickly, eyeing Hidan as he glared after her. "See ya guys."

The two left the others to tend the silver haired man, still doubled over and clearly upset he had been sucker punched. Gravel crunched beneath their feet as Sasori lead Sakura up to the front porch of the house; the door was left propped open and boxes, both sealed and opened, littered the porch and the walkway inside. The walls were painted a creamy white and empty as Sasori lead her through the house.

"It's two stories, obviously, and there's a basement we plan on using for laundry and extra storage space." The red head said as they climbed the stairs to the second floor. "Three bathrooms total, one on each floor. The garage can hold two cars and the driveway can do two more."

Sakura nodded and hummed along as she looked around, noting everything she was comfortably with or worried about in her head. Enough bedrooms, she guessed, nobody would have to really worry about sharing a private space unless they wanted to and the bathrooms she figured would be easy enough to navigate once everyone figured out a schedule. The living room and kitchen, she had been told, would be a communal space and everyone would have shifts on what night they did what or when they would have control over the television and, if she decided on moving in, they would work out a system before the end of the first month where everyone could be present.

As they finished their tour in the kitchen Sakura leaned against the counter and watched as Hidan and Itachi brought in boxes, she assumed were from the porch, and leaving them on the counter near the sink while Sasori looked through his email.

"There was someone else interested in the space," Sasori said, quickly gaining Sakura's attention. "If you're seriously invested in moving in I need the permission of the other house mates before I can give you the go ahead to start settling. We're going to show the other one around later today and I'll give you a call tomorrow morning to let you know our decision."

Sakura nodded her head and held in the urge to sigh in irritation as she straightened up to leave. "I understand. Thank you for showing me around, the place is really nice."

Sasori gave her a reassuring smile as he walked her out back to her car while the others passed by carrying boxes and yelling random obscenities at each other.

"I'm sure it'll be no problem but I don't want to do anything without the other's permission." Sasori told her after a moment, eyeing her as he felt Deidara stand beside him.

"You got my vote, yeah?" Deidara said with a grin and waved Sakura off.

She gave them a short 'thank you' before getting into her car. Sakura let out the sigh she had been holding in and started to drum her fingers on the steering wheel as she drove away. She glanced up at the house in her review mirror and frowned. It had been a really nice place, exceptionally so, and it was in an area that was very conveniently located closer to her gym and work. It was a definite no brainer for her: closer to her work and overall more cost effective when sharing the rent with five other people. As she drove, Sakura could only hope that the other person who was interested left a worse impression than sucker punching one of their possible room mates in the gut.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> News of any kind can change the feel of an entire day.

The rest of Sakura's day off was uneventful, she went through all of her business emails and the backlog of her personal email end even answered the batch of direct messages she received from any of her friends asking to hang out or get drinks sometime within the next few weeks. She had her entire apartment to herself until Thursday night and, luckily, had remembered to get some boxes from Sai he said she could use to pack things into so she did that; packing everything she knew she wouldn't need neatly into boxes and tossing anything else that didn't make the cut that she could safely consider trash. The only thing she hadn't touched were her art supplies and a good chunk of clothes she would need for the next couple of weeks.

Even if she didn't get her currently ideal living situation with Sasori and the others she'd still be prepared until she did find a place.

Thursday morning came rather quickly and Sakura had taken extra care to wake up early after Tsunade had called late the night before to confirm her appointment for the morning. She went to the gym an hour earlier than she usually did and stuck to an hour of cardio. Towards the tail end of her run she had spotted the silver haired man from yesterday, Hidan, and felt the corners of her mouth tug into something she couldn't tell would be considered a smirk or a grimace when he noticed her, too, and scowled at her before flipping her off.

When Sakura arrived at the shop, she turned on the radio and started getting her work space ready, she already knew what Tsunade wanted and was more than pleased they would be able to finish her back piece with the details they had agreed upon. It wasn't long until she heard one of her coworkers come in through the back, cursing about how it was too early to be playing music.

"Yo," Sakura said, eyeing the manager and owner of the store. "What's up Kakashi?"

The grey haired man hummed in response a long with a dismissive wave before he settled into the back office. Sakura rolled her eyes and gave an easy grin when she recognized her old friend and mentor, Tsunade, stop at the front door. The older blonde gave the glass a gentle knock before Sakura headed over to unlock it for her.

"Hey there, sorry about yesterday. I thought I had remembered you saying you couldn't do Wednesdays." She said as her impromptu client sighed and patted her shoulder in reassurance.

"It was unexpected for me, too." The blonde said, eyes going over the store front. "Nice place, I was looking at your stock portfolio yesterday and I'm impressed with how much you've improved."

Sakura couldn't help the look of pure joy that took over her entire face and as she locked the door behind her before she lead Tsunade into her work area. "Thank you, I did learn from the best after all. Just gimme a sec to get ready and we'll get started."

Tsunade nodded, a similar smile to Sakura's settling across her usually stern features, and settled down onto the chair to lay on her stomach as she heard Sakura wash her hands and pull gloves on.

"Oi, Kakashi, unlock the door when it's ten!" Sakura yelled from her spot by Tsunade's side, getting the machine ready.

"Sure thing." Kakashi called back.

After a moment the radio was turned off and the machine turned on as Sakura worked in the amount of detailing they had discussed previously. It went by relatively fast and as the minutes went by the two, eventually, heard the radio come back on and a couple of people come in for their appointments with Kakashi. It was another half an hour when Sakura finally moved back and turned the machine off, wiping away the excess ink from the spot she had been working on.

"There we go," Sakura said proudly, ripping the gloves off of her as she went to take pictures for her portfolio and then bandage it. "You know the drill, keep it on for an hour or two before washing it with mild antibacterial soap."

Tsunade nodded and thanked her, "It looks amazing Sakura, thank you so much for fitting me in so quickly."

"It's not a problem!" Sakura said, waving her hand. "Although more notice would be greatly appreciated."

The blonde haired woman shook her head with a knowing smile gracing her features as she paid for the service. "How are you doing, Sakura?" Tsunade asked, eyeing the younger girl carefully.

Sakura let out a disgruntled sigh before glancing at the clock, "I've been better. Looking for a new place to live right now because of things happening."

Tsunade rose a brow. "Things?"

"It's a long story," Sakura murmured, brow ticking in irritation at the thought of her current situation as she tapped her fingers against the glass counter top. "When are you leaving town? We can stop for coffee or something to catch up for a bit."

"I'm afraid I leave tomorrow morning for a meeting in Suna." Tsunade said, gaze on the pink haired girls hand. "But I'll be back in a couple weeks for a few days, we'll catch up them."

"Yeah?" Sakura said, a knowing smirk tugging at the corners of her pink lips. "Is that a promise?"

"Sure is, kiddo," Tsunade gave the young girl a short wink and a smirk of her own. "I'll let you know plenty of time in advance."

"Looking forward to it."

Tsunade gave her another pat on the shoulder and a warm smile before she shouldered her bag and headed out, phone pulled out as she dialed a number and started dealing with more business.

Sakura took a deep breath and headed back into her work space to clean up anything else she had neglected to beforehand. The rest of her day was relatively clear, only a handful of consultations and some piercings, and she could probably guess Kakashi would have her leave early if they both happened to have openings when it got closer to locking the place up for the night. It wasn't long before Kakashi finished up with his current client and the two were sitting up front rearranging the displays.

It was around noon when Sakura heard her phone go off from the back room and she glanced behind her, brows risen high on her forehead, as Kakashi took the time to go and fetch it for her. He came back, humming gently, and handed her the device despite her disapproving stare.

She glanced down at the unknown number and frowned, her stare quickly changing into a glare as she went to the back room to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Sakura Haruno?" The voice asked, sounding somewhat hesitant and hopeful they had the right number.

"Speaking." She said, leaning against the small table set up. "May I ask who's calling?"

"Excuse my manners, this is Itachi Uchiha. Sasori asked me to call you and see if you had located any potential room mates for yourself."

"Oh," Sakura glanced as the clock and frowned. Definitely not morning but the call was better late than never, although with how Itachi was phrasing his words it didn't seem like she had found a space to live in. "No, I haven't."

"I see, that's very good to hear because he wanted to know exactly how soon you would be able to move in."

"I--" Sakura stopped and blinked owlishly at the wall. "What?"

"When do you think you would be able to move in?" Itachi repeated after a moment. "We would prefer if it was relatively soon however we are relatively familiar your name is still legally attached to the place you are currently staying at."

"I'll have to talk to my current room mate about what she wants me to do but I can start moving in by the end of the month."

"Perfect. I will let him know you will be moving in soon." Itachi said, obviously pleased with how the conversation was going. "If you need any help in moving just let us know. Sasori or I will call you later tonight to work out some of the finer details."

"Okay, sure," Sakura said, pushing herself away from the table to stand straight. "Later."

Without another word Itachi hung up and Sakura put her phone on silent before slipping it into the pocket of her jeans. She frowned at the thought of having to go through in telling each of her five new room mates to not call her personal number while she was working unless it was a dire emergency. Sakura froze and felt her face form a considerably delighted smile at the thought. New room mates.

She had another place to comfortably sleep at that wouldn't include any sort of couch that belonged to a friend while she looked for somewhere that didn't creep her out. She had hardly looked for any other places when Sai had given her the list and she thanked whatever god that had gifted her with the relatively stress free move she was about to make. She would also have to thank Sai, eventually.

Sakura headed back to the front of the shop, an uncommon skip in her step as she greeted the rest of the customers both Kakashi and her had for the day as it suddenly picked up in clients. She could feel her manager's eyes on her throughout the day, a silent question referring to her sudden shift in mood she chose to ignore until he decided to voice it. Which he did when there was finally a lull in between clients.

"Everything okay, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, sounding as nonchalant as possible.

"Better than okay," she voiced excitedly, looking through the rest of the appointments she had for the day. "I don't know if Naruto or Sai told you but my current room mate decided she wanted to live with her boyfriend and kick me out. That call earlier was my new room mate confirming when I could move in."

Kakashi hummed in acknowledgment and nodded his head, "That is indeed something to be excited about."

Sakura rolled her eyes and attempted a scowl, unable to rid her face of the lingering relief and giddiness she felt from her newfound living situation.

"If you need time off to move just let me know."

"Thank you, Kakashi, I appreciate it."

Her boss nodded his head before glancing at the clock and being all business again. "Is your last client this two o'clock?"

"Yeah. Someone emailed me yesterday about trying to come in today around three for a consultation but I didn't get a confirmation when I replied last night."

"Alright, I'm taking my lunch now and won't be back until three. My next one isn't until four so watch the place while I'm gone."

"Sure thing, boss man." Sakura said, watching as Kakashi headed out through the back.

Sakura stationed herself in the front behind the counter with her sketchbook, passing the time until her next client. It was one-forty when she had gotten tired of the station Kakashi had decided to change it to earlier in the afternoon and was about to get up to change it when the door opened and caused the bell to ring in response. She glanced over her new customer and couldn't help the grin that took over her features.

"Shisui, wasn't it?" She asked and set her sketchbook aside.

"My apologies, I didn't know I would be this early."

"No worries, early is a good thing." Sakura gave him a warm smile waved him back to follow her. "Come on back and we can figure out what exactly you are looking to get done."

Sakura guided him back to her work space and took a seat, offering the one across from her, before taking out a pen and pad of paper. She nodded along as Shisui spoke, jotting down different ideas for some concepts to work on later. The two continued to talk as Sakura quickly sketched some varying concepts to show the man sitting near her and after nearly half an hour passed they had agreed on three different sketches she would clean up and show him on his next visit.

"Was there anything else I could help you with while you're here?" Sakura asked after a moment, making sure to mark the designs they had agreed on.

"No, that was it, thank you." Shisui said, watching intently as she jotted down some more notes.

Sakura nodded and set her notebook aside to stand and walk him back to the front.

"I'll have those ready the next time I see you. I'll call to let you know when they're ready and we can work from there."

"Thank you, Sakura," Shisui said, voice low as he smiled. "I look forward to it."

Sakura returned the smile easily and waved him off as he left the store. She sighed and turned her attention to the clock, frowning at the time. Kakashi wouldn't be back until another half hour, at the very least, and there was nothing she could really do besides work on the remaining sketches she had left for some of her upcoming clients in a few weeks; she didn't mind doing those while in the studio but a part of her always insisted she do those in the comfort of her home where she could have a better flow of creativity.

Huffing in mixture of boredom and irritation, Sakura made quick use of her downtime and decided to do some miscellaneous cleaning and organizing around the shop as she waited for Kakashi to come back. It was another twenty minutes of sweeping and going through the process of restocking the bathroom before her boss came back, chatting quietly with one of his close friends while the other was border line yelling.

"Ah, Sakura," Guy, Kakashi's lifelong friend, gave her a blindingly ecstatic smile. "How are you? Working hard or hardly working?"

"I'm good," she managed, forcing a smile of her own and decidedly ignoring his second question. "How are you doing?"

"Never been better!" Guy said, his voice and features brimming with energy.

"Sakura," Kakashi interjected quickly. "If you don't have anyone scheduled for later in the evening you can go on home, I know you have a lot of packing to do."

"Oh, right. Thank you." Sakura said, moving passed the two men in order to grab her stuff from the back. "My station is already cleaned up and ready to go for tomorrow."

Kakashi nodded and waved her off, "Have a good night, Sakura."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> planning on updating every other week on saturdays; hopefully that'll give me enough time to write chapters and then proof read for any kind of mistakes. if you're interested in being a beta reader to help me catch any spelling/grammar please send me a message on twitter (the easiest and most direct way to contact me) @projectghoulma 
> 
> thanks for reading!


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving in general can be pretty stressful; it definitely helps when your new room mates are genuinely super sweet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAA I feel like this was super rushed? I was having trouble finding a good pace for the transition of Sakura moving and her first night in her new home. I have lots of things planned for the next couple of chapters and hopefully my brain will help me put it into words and set a nice pace. 
> 
>  
> 
> Updated every other Friday.

Sakura wrinkled her nose as she opened the door to her apartment and recognized the sound of Karin's laugh echoing from the kitchen. Conflicted, the pink haired girl pursed her lips as she thought about what she could do: Option A, make a beeline for her room to finish up packing whatever she could, or Option B, have a sit down with Karin and have a conversation about what exactly the glasses clad girl wanted Sakura to do in terms of their lease and apartment. She sighed and shut the door, making sure it was audible enough that, if she wanted to, Karin would hear it and call out to her.

She didn't know if it was fortunate or not that her soon to be ex-room mate's boyfriend called out to her first.

Putting on a fake smile, Sakura turned towards the two who were walking out of the kitchen and greeted them. She ignored the look of surprise on Karin's face that she was home so early on a day she usually worked and decided to set her bag down by the door.

"Karin, I wanted to talk to you about the--"

"Don't worry about it," The red head interrupted, waving her hand dismissively. "We can cover the rent until we get your name off the lease and put his on."

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked, incredulous.

"Yes, just focus on moving out." Karin told her as she shoved some of her hair off of her shoulder. "You are looking, aren't you?"

"I already found a place. I planned on dropping off some boxes tonight."

Sakura took joy in the look Karin gave her: dark eyes wide and heavily painted lips opening and closing like a fish. Before she could say anything else, Sakura heard her phone go off from inside her bag.

"Excuse me, sorry," Sakura murmured before going through her purse to get out her phone. After a moment of searching, her brow furrowed at the sight of an unknown number before picking up. "Hi there, this is Sakura speaking."

"Oh, Sakura. This is Sasori."

Her frown deepened, she really should save all of their numbers to prevent confusion in the future.

"Oh, hey, gimme a sec." She turned her attention to Karin, taking joy in the red head's silent fury. "Sorry, one of my new room mates is calling I need to take this."

She started walking towards her room down the hall, glancing behind her as she heard Karin's voice go shrill as she threw a fit.

"Sasori," Sakura said once her door was firmly shut. "What can I help you with?"

"Itachi told me that you'd be able to move in by the end of the month?"

"Yes, I need to work some things out with my current room mate so end of the month is more realistic. I'd like to start moving in some of my stuff throughout the month so there's just my furniture left."

"I see, that's perfect. Kisame is here now if you wanted to drop some things off tonight and meet him. I would also prefer to talk about the financials in person."

"Sure, I can do that. I'll stop by with some things in an hour or two."

"If you need help just let us know, we'll see you soon." Sasori said and, after a moment, hung up.

Sakura let out a breath and looked around her room with a frown. Really the only things left she needed to pack were the clothes she decided to leave out and her most used art supplies, there were very few things she left out in arms reach that were nestled in her room. After a moment or two Sakura took out her phone a dialed a familiar number, humming softly as she went to pack up her things from the bathroom.

"Hello?"

"Ah, Naruto," Sakura greeted warmly, chucking some crusty hair products in the trash. "What are you doing right now?"

It was almost five-thirty which, Sakura mused quietly to herself, meant Naruto could be doing anything.

"Watching a movie, why?"

"Wanna help me pack some boxes in my car? I managed to find a place so I'm dropping some stuff off tonight."

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed, genuine surprise coming through from the other end. "Sure, I'll be down in a sec!"

"Thanks Naruto, you're the best."

As soon as he arrived, Sakura had Naruto begin toting boxes down to her car while she finished packing and, after a while, Karin offered to help her pack or throw away the things she had around the apartment. An hour into it, Sakura had finished packing the rest of her things and felt an odd mix of surprise and pride that she had very little, for the most part, to move into her new living space; aside from her art supplies and some books, her load was relatively light.

After everything was packed tightly into her car, Naruto had excused himself and went back inside their previously shared apartment building, to his own complex, after letting Sakura know he'd help move furniture over the weekend and that he would see her the next day at work. Karin kept to the side as she waited for the blonde to leave, eyes narrowed in distaste.

"Like I said earlier," Karin told her, arms folded across her chest. "Don't worry about the lease here. My boyfriend and I have rent taken care of and we'll have your name taken off when it's time to renew. I'll call you when you need to come in and sign papers."

"Thanks, Karin, I appreciate it." Sakura said, pushing some stray hairs behind her ear. "It might not be until Saturday or Sunday when I can get my furniture, but I'll try to get it sooner."

"The giant arm chair is yours," Karin said. "The red one. So is the end table next to it."

Sakura rose a brow and held back a smirk. "Okay, sure. I'll leave my keys on the counter when I pick up the last of my things."

Karin nodded before letting a small smile grace her features. "Thanks, Sakura. You were pretty cool."

"You too. Good luck with your boyfriend." Sakura told her, offering a small smile of her own. "I'll see you this weekend when I get my furniture."

Sakura watched as Karin went back inside the building before getting behind the wheel of her car. She glanced up at the brick building one last time before driving to her new place.

The drive to her new home felt surprisingly long as Sakura pulled up into the driveway closest to the house. Glancing at the other cars Sakura made a mental note to actively park along the side walk instead of the driveway to help save space as she grabbed a box from the trunk of her tiny car and headed to the front door. She frowned at the sight of the door propped open with what looked like to be a different box and took a step inside.

"Hello?" She called out, forcing herself to relax in case someone startled her a second time. "Sasori?"

"Ah, Sakura!"

She turned towards where the kitchen was and smiled as Sasori came into view, followed by someone much taller than the red head that stood beside him.

"Kisame, this is Sakura."

"It's nice to finally meet cha!" The man introduced as Kisame gave her a toothy grin.

"Likewise," Sakura replied, giving him a large grin in return before gesturing with the box in her arms. "Where should I put this?"

"There's a room at the end of the hall upstairs you can take or there's one left down here." Sasori told her, stepping over a couple of boxes littering the hallway floor. "Here, let me help. How many are left?"

"Not many, actually. I managed to fit everything in my car besides all of my furniture." Sakura told him. "I'll take the room upstairs if that's cool."

"Kisame, can you show her to her new room? I'll grab some boxes to bring up."

Kisame nodded, his grin never quite leaving his face, and started up the stairs ahead of Sakura. "Sure thing, man. Come on Sakura."

Sakura followed the much taller man up the stairs and carefully maneuvered herself to keep from tripping over anything. At the top of the steps she greeted Itachi as he passed by, who quickly offered to help bring up some of her things, while Kisame continued towards the end of the hall.

"Here you go," he said, opening the very last door on the left. "All yours."

"Oh, thank you." Sakura took a step inside her new room and couldn't help the smile that quickly overtook her features.

All of the floors throughout the house were a dark mahogany and the walls a contrasting white. Sakura's room in particular had slate gray walls and the same wooden flooring with large windows that overlooked the backyard and side of the house. She set a box down and tugged at the closet door, thoroughly impressed with how beautiful everything looked. She took another minute before turning on her heel and helping the others in bringing up the rest of her belongings.

After the last box was hefted out of her car and she was parked along the side of the road in front of the house, she followed the others inside and settled herself in the kitchen to help Sasori unpack any other boxes while Itachi and Kisame left to get dinner. The rest of the house seemed to be moved in, from what Sakura could see, and he was fairly impressed by the fact they already had the living and dining rooms set up, furniture wise, and all that was left was little things to make it more homey and inviting.

"Sakura, are you going to need help moving your furniture?" Sasori asked her while he opened one of the last boxes he had labeled kitchen.

"I should be okay, I don't have a lot of furniture aside and I have a friend helping this weekend." Sakura told him as she leaned her chin in her palm and watched him sort through dishes.

"I'll ask to see if any of the others can help at all."

"Really? That'd be great!"

"What are you going to do in the meantime, though?"

Sakura tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Are you going to sleep on your floor?" Sasori asked, eyeing his new room mate.

"Oh," Sakura hummed in thought. "I hadn't really thought about it. I can crash on the couch until my bed gets here, at least. It's no big deal."

Sasori huffed out a sigh before he set some utensils on the counter. "My room is across from yours, you can sleep in there and I'll take the couch."

"Are you sure? I don't want to--"

"Don't be silly," Sasori interjected quickly, paying her little to no attention while he continued to work. "It'll only be for a little while, anyway."

"Ah, thank you." Sakura didn't want to argue the small details, if Sasori insisted she stay in his room until they got her mattress and the rest of her furniture in she could let it go just this once.

The two of them worked in a comfortable silence, the only noises coming from dishes and pans and boxes being open. It was another good ten minutes of just Sasori and Sakura before Kisame and Itachi had entered with pizza boxes in hand.

"We have dinner," Kisame said, flashing Sakura an easy grin as he slipped behind her to set the box down. "Hope you like meat and cheese, Sakura."

Sasori frowned at the newly brought food, eyes narrowing slightly. "Put them on the dining room table and out of the way."

Kisame let out a groan before relenting to the much shorter mans orders. "Fine, fine."

Itachi gave Sakura a warm smile of his own before moving past her towards the dining room with his own set of pizza boxes. As the two men walked away, Sakura caught the end of a conversation before the red head beside her grabbed her attention again.

"Sorry," Sasori told her. "Until we can get the kitchen in order we'll have to do take out."

"Is take out uncommon here?" Sakura asked, giving him her undivided attention.

"Not usually." Itachi said from behind, startling the pink haired girl. He gave her an apologetic smile upon noticing the small jump at the sound of his voice, slight amusement in his eyes as he continued to speak. "We try to take turns as much as we can, but Hidan and Sasori usually does a lot of the cooking."

"When we go out or get take out it's usually for a special occasion." Sasori supplied from beside her before glancing over at Itachi. "Are the others coming home tonight?"

"Hidan mentioned something about going to a Jashin thing so he won't be back until tomorrow," Kisame called from the dining room. "Deidara hasn't called or anything so I'm just assuming he'll be by eventually, we got cheese for him just in case."

Sasori hummed in response, eyes narrowing slightly, as he worked on putting away the rest of the dishes he had unpacked earlier before he went to eat dinner with the others. Sakura remained in the kitchen for another minute and went through her phone, ignoring the easy chatter her house mates seemed to fall into. It was a couple minutes before Itachi came back into the room and set a slice of pizza down in front of her.

"Oh," Sakura murmured, eyeing the plate of food sitting before her before glancing up at Itachi with an appreciative smile. "Thank you."

Itachi gave her a brief nod, a small smile of his own on his features. "Why don't you join us in the living room? We're about to watch a movie."

"I shouldn't," Sakura said, waiting after she had finished her first bite of her pizza. "It's already pretty late and I have a busy morning tomorrow."

"I see, you are welcome to use my room down the hall until you get your furniture moved in."

"Sasori offered me his room earlier, but thank you." Sakura told him.

Itachi nodded his head in understanding, "We'll try to keep it down, then. Have a pleasant rest."

"Thank you, Itachi," Sakura said to him as he went into the living room.

Taking a couple more minutes to finish her dinner, Sakura quickly washed her plate before she headed back upstairs and into Sasori's room. She ignored the urge to snoop around Sasori's room, leaving a quick change of clothes and her gym bag packed by the door before slipping into his bed for a good nights rest.


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's easy to party when it's with friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updates every other friday

Sakura had been genuinely surprised when she had finally realized how late it was until she was suddenly hearing Naruto chattering beside her about a party that was happening that night. She blinked, rapidly, as she looked up at the clock; where had the day gone? It wasn't very often that she got so busy or into her own groove during work that she lost track of time completely.

"I know you're in the middle of moving," Naruto said, a huge grin beginning to form on his face as he closed up for the night. "But you can come hang out tonight, right? I told you about inviting Sasuke and some others out for drinks, right? At Ino's?"

Sakura nodded as she tried to remember and, once she did, attempt to decide about whether it would be a good idea or not. She didn't have anything planned for Saturday since, after talking to Kakashi, she had gotten the day off and it was comforting to know her roommates were nice enough but even so; she didn't want to ask anyone for a ride in case she decided to actually do any drinking. Maybe she could convince the others to go, too.

"I don't know," Sakura said to him from where she waited by the stores' side door. "Who else is going to be there besides you and Sasuke?"

"I dunno, actually. Ino said she'd set it up since she offered to have it at her place."

"Great," Sakura murmured as a scowl etched itself onto her face. "No thanks. If she offered to set it up it means she wants an excuse to update the dirt she has on people."

"Awe c'mon, Sak! It'll be fun! Like the good ole' days in school!" Naruto whined, clinging to the back of his friends' jacket.

She let out a wavering sigh and gave a weakened glare at the blonde before ultimately giving in. "Okay, fine. I'll go."

Naruto let out an ear piercing yell of excitement before crushing Sakura with a large hug, his words speeding out of his mouth into a slurred mess as he hurried outside of the building. "It's at Ino's place in an hour! Let me know when you get there, Sasuke and I will try to meet up with you!"

Sakura sighed, visibly deflating at the thought of having to socialize with so many people, and waved as Naruto hurried off to wherever he needed to go before tonight. She got into her own car and, with no hurry, headed home.

The house was surprisingly lively when Sakura opened the front door, wincing internally as she recognized Deidara and Sasori yelling at each other in the living room. As she set her keys and bag onto the kitchen counter, she gave Kisame a small hello while he searched for something in the pantry.

"Yo," he said quickly, glancing over his shoulder with a sly grin. "How was your day?"

"Fine," Sakura said, taking a piece of fruit from the fridge. "Went by surprisingly fast, actually. Yours?"

Kisame gave an exasperated sigh and jabbed his thumb towards the living room as Deidara and Sasori continued to scream at each other. "Dealt with that all day, so much for a relaxing day off."

Sakura gave him a sympathetic smile before quickly glancing into the shared living space, humming in amusement as two of her room mates yelled about the definitions of what art _really_ was. "What are they yelling about? Art?"

"It happens more than you'd think," Kisame told her, taking out a bag of unopened chips for him to snack on before turning his attention to the two arguing in the living room. "Deidara thinks art is fleeting, or whatever, and Sasori thinks art is immortal, or something. You hear it enough and it get's stuck in your head."

"Oh, okay." Sakura said, mild amusement in her tone.

"You got plans tonight?" Kisame asked suddenly, keeping his gaze away from Sakura.

"Unfortunately," Sakura said and ran a hand over her face. "Naruto invited me to a party my friend Ino is throwing."

"Yamanaka? Didn't know you knew her."

"We were best friends in high school." Sakura told him. "Any of you guys wanna come with?"

Kisame hummed as he ate, pretending to be deep in thought as a grin Sakura could only describe as feral formed onto his features. "Sure, nothin' better to do."

"See if the others want to go, too. I'm gonna go shower and change."

"Yes, ma'am," Kisame said, the same grin adorning his face as he headed towards the two in the living room. "Oi, dumbasses! Feel like partying or are you going to scream about useless shit all night?"

It took longer than an hour for everyone to be ready and out of the house and piled into Sasori's car, Sakura sitting up front and playing navigator as she gave directions to Ino's place. It took even longer to get there after three wrong turns and traffic coming to a halt after someone rear ended the car in front of it; making them an hour and forty-five minutes late. When they finally arrived they were immediately met by Itachi who joined their little group and stayed within ear shot of both Sasori and Kisame.

It wasn't even five minutes before Sakura had been dragged away by Ino and, as some of the others gave her a concerned glance, waved their concern away as she joined some of her friends she hadn't seen in years.

"Okay, girl, spill it. Since when did you start hanging out with the Itachi and his friends?" Ino asked, an intensity to her words and gaze as she locked stares with her pink haired friend. "Are you dating one them? Sleeping with--"

"God, Ino, no," Sakura snapped, rolling her eyes. "They're my room mates."

"Really? What happened to whats-her-face?"

"Karin? She basically kicked me out so she could live with her boyfriend."

"Yikes," Ino said, giving her friend a drink. "Sounds tough."

"I mean, I was super lucky when Sai gave me the opportunity to move in with Itachi and the others. Better someone I know a little bit then nothing at all."

Ino nodded and clapped her hands, smiling brightly. "Do you wanna bang them?"

"What? Don't be stupid, I'm not gonna fuck my room mates." Sakura snapped, taking a sip from the alcoholic beverage Ino had given her. "Have you seen Naruto?"

Ino rolled her eyes before tugging her friend against her side and began to guide her towards some others that were dancing (if you could call it that). "I saw him earlier with Sasuke but lost sight of him. You remember Neji, right? Lee told me he was asking about you when he heard about the party."

"Neji Hyuga? Why would he be asking about me?"

"Who knows," Ino said before giving Sakura's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Either he's interested in your tattoo work or something it's else, but I saw him twenty minutes ago with Tenten and Hinata."

Throughout the night Sakura stayed relatively close to Ino's side until they had eventually ran into both Naruto and Sasuke taking shots. She watched as Ino joined them and, after enduring a couple minutes of Naruto's begging, took a couple of shots of her own. The four of them continued to drink while they exchanged empty threats and challenges to see who could drink the most, laughter escaping all of them every time Naruto made a face or noise to express his dissatisfaction towards the liquor they had chosen.

It was around ten, Sakura guessed, when she felt someone come up to her side as she was downing what felt like the millionth shot for the night while Naruto gagged and both Sasuke and Ino snickered at him. She glanced over to her left and saw both Sasori and Itachi eyeing her, their expressions causing her alcohol riddled brain to freeze and speed up simultaneously. The two men looked mildly impressed by how easily she held her liquor but something darker, more primal was evident in their intense gazes and Sakura felt as if they were looking over her exposed neck and shoulders. Their stares made her face flush and her neck heat up.

After another few drinks Sakura felt someone's hand on her upper back and heard them say something to the others, that it was getting late and they needed to head home before anyone got too drunk or carried away. She had heard Ino and Naruto say something, a poor attempt to talk over each other at the same time, while she leaned into the comforting touch of who she recognized as Itachi while Sasori took the initiative to say her good byes to her friends for her. Sasori took Sakura's other side while Itachi put his arm around her waist to help her from falling as they exited the Yamanaka household.

Once they were outside, Sakura took a deep breath and felt the weight of all the alcohol she had drank hit her at once. Her skin crawled from the uncomfortable mix of the chilled air outside and the intense heat she had experienced from both drinking and being in a stuffy house full of equally warm people, her legs felt heavier with each step she took towards Sasori's car. Sakura remained quiet as the others carried her aside from a hushed and extremely slurred word of thanks.

"You're welcome, Sakura," Itachi told her, his voice gentle in her ear. "We'll be home soon."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaa!!! I'm so sorry if this feels rushed or if it's too short in comparison to previous chapters. I feel like this is still a transitional area for what I want to happen next and hopefully get things really going within the next two chapters or so. Also this past week was super hectic and I didn't have a lot of time to write let alone edit but I wanted to keep to the schedule I set up for this story.
> 
> I hope this chapter didn't come across as half-assed or anything like that, please let me know if it does.


	7. Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morning hangovers suck.

Saturday morning and Sakura rose with a start. Looking around, she could feel her heart begin to beat rapidly as she struggled to get a grip on where she was. Right, she was in Sasori's room. Where she had fallen asleep the night before. Groaning, Sakura leaned over as she felt her head begin to pound as the light that filtered in through the curtains finally registered within her thoughts that it was too bright and the birds chirping outside were too loud. No, she had fallen asleep in the car nestled next to someone on her way back from Ino's party. She struggled to look around through the intense pounding of her hangover, squinting her eyes in the already relatively dark room to help keep the offending rays of light that happened to fall over the bed.

What exactly had happened? She remembered Sasori and Itachi getting her to go home and then getting into the car before falling asleep on whoever it was that had sat next to her. Sakura covered her eyes with her hands and pressed her palms firmly against them in an attempt to help soothe the strain her eyesight was under. She sat like that for a while, silently suffering as her head pounded and her eyes begged to be kept shut under the comforting warmth Sasori's blankets was giving her.

She jumped at the sound of someone knocking at the door and, after a moment, opening it. Sakura felt the intensity in her head increase as the door cried in protest and huddled in on herself to keep her head from breaking.

"You're awake," Sasori said gently, the expression on his face both sympathetic and amused from the crumpled state of his room mate. "Are you okay?"

Sakura shook her head and groaned before burying her face deeper into her hands. "Hangover."

"I see." Sasori murmured as he took a seat onto his bed beside her. "How much did you drink?"

"Enough, I guess." Sakura replied, her voice hoarse and scratchy against her throat. "I feel like someone tried to run me over."

Sasori nodded his head in sympathy before he began to rub Sakura's upper back in an attempt to ease her pain. "You're off today, right? Kisame and I can get your furniture while you rest."

"No," Sakura murmured, instinctively leaning into Sasori's side as his hands smoothed over her shoulders. "I should help."

The two remained silent for a moment as Sasori continued to comfort and soothe Sakura while she curled up into his side, the smell of his cologne easing the rest of her nerves.

"I didn't say or do anything stupid last night, did I?" Sakura asked after a while, the pounding in her head finally beginning to ease as she looked up at Sasori.

"Not unless you count trying to shower while still fully dressed."

Sakura wrinkled her nose, a part of her thinking she was glad not to have remembered that. "Anything else?"

"Not really, Itachi helped to get you into bed and make sure you were comfortable enough to sleep."

"Oh," Sakura murmured softly. "Thank you."

"It was not an issue at all, we were happy to help."

Sakura hummed in response while she enjoyed the soothing sensation of Sasori rubbing her back and the two continued to sit in a companionable silence while they waited for Sakura's hangover to ease itself, if only a little bit.

"Do you need anything? Pain reliever? Water, maybe?" Sasori asked softly, leaning his head down onto Sakura's.

"I'm fine," Sakura murmured and internally cringed at how tired she sounded. "What time is it?"

"A little after nine," Sasori told her, his voice soothing over her frayed nerves. "Kisame and I planned on getting your furniture around one after he got back from his work."

Sakura nodded as the pounding in her head finally began to recede. She took a breath and exhaled slowly as she focused on Sasori's hand that continued to rub her back in soothing motions, taking a small comfort from his presence as she pushed through her hangover.

"We can go without you if you'd like to continue to rest. We'd just need the address."

"No that's okay, I can do it. Just need another hour or two for everything to stop hurting." Sakura said and let out a small chuckle as the weight of Sasori's hand came to a still on her shoulder.

"I will let you rest then and come get you before we leave." Sasori said, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze before pulling away, seemingly reluctant, and stood at the side of his bed. "If you need anything just let me or Itachi know, he's in his room next door."

Sakura nodded and laid down, keeping her gaze focused on the odd expression her room mate had given her before turning away. "Sasori?"

The red head stopped short of the door and turned to look over his shoulder at the girl laying in his bed, the tiniest amount of concern pulling at the center of his brow. "Yes?"

"Thank you for looking after me."

He gave Sakura a smile, the concern he held previously melting away to something similar to endearment. "It's not a problem, Sakura."

Sakura had fallen asleep again, she realized, after waking up to gently spoken words and somebody shaking her enough to stir her from her slumber. She blinked, vision hazy, and turned her head to the man at her side as her gaze focused on ebony eyes framed by lashes darker than ink.

"Itachi, hey. What time is it?"

"Almost one. Sasori told me you wanted to assist him and Kisame in getting your furniture."

"Oh, yeah. I did." Sakura said as she sat up in the bed. "Are they leaving now?"

"No, not yet. They're about to, though. They just need the address."

Sakura blinked, confusion blatant on her features as her sleep riddled state rushed to focus on what her roommate was saying. "What?"

"They're ready to leave, they need the address to get your furniture."

"My furniture?"

"Yes. They need the address."

"Right," Sakura said, barely managing to stifle a yawn while her thought process finally pieced two and two together. "Oh, shit! They're leaving now?"

Itachi held back his sigh of frustration, the only other sign giving off his current irritation the narrowing of his dark eyes. "Sakura." he said, voice stern in an attempt to get her to focus.

"Okay, okay, I just need like five minutes tops to get ready." She said, hurriedly pushing herself off of the bed and towards her bag by the door. "Let them know I'll be down soon."


	8. Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> transition chapter before getting into some of the more juicier details in what i have planned;;

It was the first time since moving in with Sasori and the others Sakura had slept on her own bed in her brand new room. The morning light fell directly over her face, the curtains she had meant to put up before falling asleep laid forgotten across the red armchair nestled in the corner of her room by her bed, and eventually woke her up. Sakura stirred, squinting against the glaring light as she became acutely aware that she had gotten used - and comfortable - to sleeping in Sasori's room.

Sakura had been woken up much earlier than she was expecting to, an hour earlier, and begrudgingly got up to change into something more comfortable that she could reasonably roam the house in considering how early it was; she'd have to use the extra hour putting more of her things away and making her room homier.

The sound of voices from downstairs urged her to hurry, the cool flooring uncomfortable beneath her bare feet as she padded down towards the dining room and kitchen.

"Good morning," Sakura said, stifling a yawn as she recognized Kisame and Sasori working around one another to make breakfast. "Thank you again for yesterday, I owe you guys lunch or something."

Sasori gave her warm smile before ignoring the second part of her greeting entirely, "Good morning, did you sleep well?"

"Nah," Kisame said, slapping her square in the back in a friendly gesture. "Happy to help."

Sakura whined at the harsh contact of the much taller male as she rubbed away any remaining sleep from her eyes and face. "Why can't you guys just let me be nice to you and treat you to something?"

The two exchanged a look before giving her two different grins, Sasori one of mild amusement while Kisame flashed one that appeared overly excited before they continued their respective tasks at fixing breakfast.

"Do dinner tonight and we'll call it even, okay?" Kisame said, focusing his attention on the bacon he was frying. "Chef's choice."

"Yes, I'm sure the others would appreciate it as well," Sasori said from beside her as he handed her a cup of tea. "There are pancakes and french toast on the table, Deidara and Hidan should be awake soon so you're welcome to eat if you'd like."

Sakura murmured her thanks as she took the mug, humming in thought at the prospect of having to cook for five other people. "Any requests? Or things I should avoid?"

Kisame mimicked her and hummed as he emptied the frying pan of bacon onto a nearby plate. "Not really, the pickiest eater is probably Hidan and nine times out of ten he doesn't even show up for dinners unless he's the one doing it."

"I would be happy to help you tonight, if you'd like, Sakura. If you need anything from the store we can have Itachi pick things up on his way home."

"I'll have to look, but I would appreciate the help. Thank you."

Sasori nodded his response and carried the plate of bacon to the dining room and immediately scowled as he caught sight of Hidan sitting at the table in nothing but his sweat pants.

"Hidan," Sasori warned, eyes narrowing dangerously as Sakura took the empty seat to his left. "Put a damned shirt on when you're at the table."

Hidan scoffed and rolled his eyes before pointing a fork dripping with syrup at the man attempting to scold him. "Fuck off."

Sakura glanced up at the red head who was pointedly glaring at the silver haired man sitting across from her, his frown matching the one that Hidan was giving in return. The three of them remained silent, staring at one another, while Kisame finished whatever he was doing in the kitchen. It had felt like hours before Sakura finally cleared her throat, gaining the attention of both men currently at the table, and started eating some of the food she had put on her plate earlier.

"This is really good," she said, feeling her face flush under the intensity of both Hidan and Sasori's gazes. "Whoever made this did a really good job."

"Thanks," Kisame said from behind her and let out a laugh from the way everyone at the table suddenly jolted from his humorous tone. "Sasori helped with the eggs though while I did the other stuff. Dig in, guys, don't want it to go to waste."

Sasori let out a tired sigh before sending one last, heated glare towards Hidan and settling down in the seat beside Sakura. He ate very little, watching Hidan intently as he and the others settled in and began to eat while drinking a cup of something that smelled like coffee. After a couple of minutes of idle conversation, Sakura jumped at the sudden sound of someone rushing around down the hall between what she guessed was their room and the bathroom.

"Oi!" Deidara yelled from somewhere in the house, his voice muffled slightly by the thin walls and door. "Has anyone seen my clay?"

Sasori narrowed his gaze towards the offending sounds of his roommate screeching about his misplaced belongings, all the while taking another much needed gulp of his black as death coffee. "Probably in the same place he always leaves it," he murmured under his breath, ignoring the curious glances from the girl beside him. "In his dump of a bedroom."

Kisame chuckled at the disheveled appearance of Deidara as he rushed towards the dining room, the entire table hiding the amused and curious stares at singed and tangled pieces of blonde and smudges of ash and soot that littered his skin. Hidan scoffed and readied a snarky comment, obviously annoyed when Sakura quickly interrupted him.

"Where did you leave it last?" She asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked him over. "You look awful, did you just wake up?"

Deidara sighed and ran a hand through his hair, leaving sooty prints at his root and through his hair. "I thought I left it in the basement on my work bench or maybe in my room, yeah? There should have been enough to last until my next shipment this week."

Sakura glanced over as Sasori let out another sigh, watching as he averted his gaze to somewhere more interesting than the obviously distressed blonde in the doorway. "I have a little bit before I need to leave, I can help you look if you'd like?" She turned back to focus on her roommate, a small smile lighting up her features as the blonde narrowed his gaze and looked her over.

"That.. would be really great, yeah? I appreciate it." Deidara said, letting out a strained breath before turning to head back to search throughout the house. "It's a tan color in clear packaging with yellow tape on it, I'm going to look in my room again."

Sakura nodded as she watched Deidara leave, a frown etching itself onto her features as she glanced at both Hidan and Sasori, then Kisame. "Have any of you seen what he's talking about?"

Kisame scoffed and shook his head, shoving a handful of bacon in his mouth before speaking. "I don't know shit about what he does with his clay, he knows to keep it in with his own stuff or it might get thrown out."

Sasori hummed and tapped his finger against his mug as if he was lost in thought, "There's a chance Itachi or myself might have accidentally thrown it away while cleaning the other day. But I don't remember seeing anything with yellow tape on it."

The three of them looked towards Hidan as Sakura moved to get up and clear her dishes away, his violet gaze sweeping over everyone at the table.

"Fuck if I know." He said gruffly, eyes narrowing into dangerous slits at the three giving his disbelieving stares. "Fuck you if you think I took it, I have better things to do than steal his artist shit."

Kisame rolled his eyes and continued eating while Sasori took another drink from his cup, both of them choosing to remain silent in response to Hidan's heated words.

"Calm down, no one's accusing you of anything," Sakura said to Hidan over her shoulder. "We just need to know if anyone's seen it anywhere recently."

Hidan snorted and aimed his glare down on the table as he continued to eat in silence.

Sakura sighed as she set her dishes in the sink, to be cleaned later, and headed towards Deidara's room. She knocked on the door he had left ajar, peeking her head in as she pushed it further open to see him throwing some of dirty, discarded clothes onto his bed as he searched for his clay. Sakura frowned as she gave the room a once over, her nose wrinkling at the overly dark room and messy appearance of his room.

"No wonder you can't find anything, this place is a wreck."

Deidara snorted as he stood up, showing his distress as he ran a hand through his hair. "It's fine when I know where everything is, yeah?"

"I mean, obviously not." Sakura murmured, putting a hand on her hip as she looked her roommate over. "Otherwise you wouldn't be looking for your clay."

"Are you going to help me look or not?" Deidara snapped, focusing his glare onto Sakura.

"Of course, just tell me where to look for it," Sakura said, running a hand through her tangled locks.

Deidara let out an exhausted sounding sigh as he looked around his disaster of a room. "The only place left to look would be at my desk in the basement or my workspace."

Sakura tilted her head to the side and hummed in confirmation before turning to leave, "Let's go look then if it isn't here it might be where you work."

"Right," Deidara said, sounding somewhat defeated as followed Sakura down towards the basement. "I appreciate the help."

"It's no problem, I have time before work today anyway," Sakura told him, waving his words of thanks away with a smile. "Happy to help."


	9. Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All seems well within Sakura's life; everyone is beginning to get into the swing of things and becoming more comfortable with one another. Making dinner for everyone should be enough to show how invested Sakura is to live with the Akatsuki boys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise chapter update because I had it finished and proofread early so I thought why not;; especially since all of you have been so supportive of this story I thought it would be a nice treat !! 
> 
> I'm planning the beginnings of another chaptered fic but I'm not entirely sure for which fandom yet since I'm super picky on which characters I feel like I can write at least somewhat in character for so please be on the lookout for that
> 
> Hope you like the chapter and thank you again for the continued support!

Sakura hadn't heard anything else from Deidara or the others until she was closing down the shop; both Naruto and Sai had already left for the night while she finished up a consultation. She was glad to hear that Deidara had found his clay on his desk at his workshop after having spent hours searching throughout the entire house and coming up empty. Some of the other messages were just Kisame and Sasori asking if they needed to get anything for specific for dinner that night. After locking up, Sakura took some extra time to reply to some of the messages from her roommates: congratulating Deidara and letting the others know she would pick up the things needed on her way home.

It wasn't until Sakura was home and already pulling bags out of the backseat of her car that she realized she had no idea how to cook anything that wasn't pasta or frozen pizza; it had been an afterthought to get noodles and sauce so she could skip out on buying lunch the next couple of days but she hadn't even thought to check if any of the others liked spaghetti or mac and cheese. Once inside, Sakura settled the groceries she had gotten in the kitchen and was more than a little relieved to see Hidan rummaging around the refrigerator.

"Hey," she said, nervously tapping her nails against the counter. "Did you guys still want me to make dinner? I know it's sort of late but--"

"I don't care, do what you want." Hidan interrupted his focus entirely on the contents of the fridge. "The only ones here are me and Sasori."

"Oh, I see." Sakura murmured, turning her gaze towards the oven. "Where's Sasori?"

"How the fuck should I know? I'm not his mom."

Sakura rolled her eyes as she started pulling things out from the bags she would need to make a pot of pasta. "If you see him can you let him know dinner will be ready in like half an hour?"

Hidan scoffed and glanced over his shoulder, "I'm not your messenger boy, pinkie."

Sighing, Sakura began getting everything ready for dinner. About halfway through she was more than a little delighted to hear Itachi and Kisame coming in through the front door. She grinned excitedly at them as the two walked into the kitchen, both complimenting the smell of her cooking.

"What's cookin'?" Kisame asked, towering over her from behind as he peered down into the boiling pot of water and noodles. "Smells good."

"I agree," Itachi said after a moment, taking a bottled water from the fridge. "I wasn't aware you'd be taking care of dinner tonight, Sakura."

"Oh, ah, Sasori and Kisame talked me into it," Sakura told him, feeling her face flush from the close proximity of Kisame at her back. "I hope you guys like spaghetti, it's one of the only things I know how to make."

"Spaghetti is fine," Kisame said, voice low against Sakura's ear. "It'll be great."

Sakura nodded her head and glanced over at Itachi to help ease her nerves from Kisame being so close and grew confused over the dazed, somewhat irritated, look the dark haired man was giving the two of them.

"Could one of you let Sasori know dinner is almost ready?" Sakura asked, hoping to distract at least one of them. "Please?"

Kisame was the first to answer, his low chuckle vibrating through his chest and against Sakura's back as he gave a quick affirmation and left the room while calling out for the much shorter redhead, while Itachi let out a strangled sigh before focusing his gaze onto the counter, taking in the rest of the groceries Sakura had picked up from the store.

"What else did you get?" He asked softly, glancing over at Sakura.

"Not much else, just some things I can make for lunches. Nothing fancy."

Itachi nodded and gave a slight hum in response. "If you are interested, I would be happy to assist in expanding your areas of cooking."

"Really?" Sakura asked, glancing over her shoulder as she moved to strain the noodles over the sink. "That would be really great, actually. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would get sick of nothing but pasta if I'm the one cooking."

Sakura felt her face flush at the sound of Itachi laughing quietly beside her, his intense gaze focused entirely on her as she added the sauce to the pot of noodles.

"It would be my pleasure, Sakura," he said, moving to stand next to her at the stove. "Is there anything else that needs to be done before dinner is ready?"

"Well, I wanted to do like a side dish? But I didn't really have enough time to make one considering Hidan was no help and Sasori was busy."

"I can help make a salad while you finish with the main dish," Itachi told her, moving quickly to get the things he needed from the fridge and pantry.

"That would be amazing, thank you, Itachi."

Itachi gave her a quick nod while he got to work with Sakura quickly following suit to finish up.

It wasn't long until both Kisame and Sasori could be heard from the dining room, chatting about nothing in particular, before the two of them came into the kitchen to help set up the dining table for the upcoming meal.

"Ah, Sakura," Sasori murmured in greeting, eyeing Itachi carefully as the darker haired man continued to cut up different vegetables. "Will dinner be ready soon?"

"Five more minutes," Sakura told them, offering an apologetic smile. "It'd have been done earlier if I had gotten home on time, sorry."

Sasori shook his head and watched as Kisame shuffled between the kitchen and dining room with plates and glasses, making small comments now and again about how he couldn't wait to eat and how amazing everything smelled.

As soon as dinner was about to start Sakura jumped at the sound of her phone going off from the counter. She frowned at Itachi's back as her ringtone went through once, then twice.

"I'm sorry, Itachi, but can you finish setting up while I get that?" Sakura asked, brows furrowed as she glanced towards her phone. "It'll just be a minute."

"Sure," Itachi said, taking the bowl of finished pasta Sakura offered him. "I'll let the others know."

"Thank you." Sakura murmured, rushing to grab her phone and check the contact before stepping out into the hallway. She narrowed her eyes as she took in the unknown caller ID before deciding to answer it, hopefully sounding less irritated than she actually felt. "Hello?"

Sakura waited for a reply and, when she received none, glanced down at the screen to make sure she was still connected with whoever had decided to call so late at night. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

She blinked when she heard the other end disconnect and stared at the dark screen of her phone, ready to head back to the others when it started ringing again with the same unknown caller ID and deciding to answer a second time.

"Hello?" Sakura asked, letting her irritation come through as she looked up to see Itachi in the entryway of the kitchen giving her an odd look. "Who is this?"

"Is everything okay?" Itachi asked, taking a step towards her with concern etched onto his features. "What's going on?"

Sakura put her hand over the receiver and gave Itachi her full attention, half-hoping whoever was calling her would begin to speak. "I don't know, it says unknown on the ID thing."

"Unknown?" Itachi repeated, glancing at the dark screen of Sakura's phone. "What are they saying?"

"Nothing," Sakura said, her brows furrowing in confusion when she heard the other end disconnected without a single word. "They hung up."

"Without a word?" Itachi asked, his own brows raised in surprise. "How strange."

"You're telling me," Sakura said, turning her phone on silent and pocketing it in her jeans. "Must have been a miss dial or something and didn't realize it."

Itachi nodded and followed her into the dining room, eyeing his roommate carefully as she sat between Sasori and Kisame in the middle of the table before they got dinner started.

"Everything cool?" Kisame asked before shoving a fork full of spaghetti into his mouth.

"Yeah, just got a weird miss dial," Sakura said, waving off the concerned glances some of the others were giving her. "No worries."

"Do you get those a lot?" Sasori asked, glancing back as Itachi came in with a couple glasses of water.

"Sometimes, not too much though," Sakura replied easily while quietly thanking the long haired man for her water. "It's usually Naruto or one of his friends trying to prank call me."

"I see," Sasori said, focusing his gaze onto his meal. "This is delicious, Sakura, thank you."

"Oh!" Sakura felt her face flush at the sudden compliment. "It's no problem, really."

"Would you be comfortable with making dinner every couple of nights? It is usually split between Itachi, Hidan, and myself," Sasori told her, watching Kisame shovel his food into his mouth. "But if you would like then you may take over once in a while."

"Sure," Sakura exclaimed, a bashful grin beginning to form on her face. "That'd be great."

Sasori nodded his head and gave her a gentle smile before focusing on his own meal while the others started small conversations about their day. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the hearty meal Sakura had prepared, each one giving out compliments randomly throughout the night on how good it tasted.

All throughout dinner, Sakura could feel her phone in her pocket vibrate a couple more times before going completely silent the rest of the night.


	10. Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back to your regular scheduled chapter;; thank you all for the continued support and comments

Days had passed since Sakura received any more mysterious calls, the original incident lost in her mind as both her work and home life became busier and busier. She was booked solid which left her little time to do anything more than her schedule originally allowed her outside of work and her time at the gym. As she got into the swing of things while living with five other people, all men, she stopped feeling self-conscious while doing whatever she needed to do while at home and, alternately, felt the boys were doing the same in regards to living with a girl. With everyone becoming busier, Sakura found herself either alone at work or at home.

On her days off Sakura had decided to start going with Hidan to the gym so they could save on gas and time. It didn't take long for the two of them to get familiar and comfortable with the other's schedule, usually adding another set amount of time or reps to their work out so they could both finish at the same time. Ever since she started arriving with Hidan, Sakura could feel an almost immediate shift of people avoiding her which she was more than thankful for; especially when she started noticing a lot of the people that previously creeped her out or tried hitting on her keep their distance from her.

It was on such a day that she was working on her cardio she swore she could feel someone staring at her but, whenever she tried to look around to find the perpetrator, found no one paying her any attention. After her work out she went to stand next to Hidan, distractedly looking around and behind her in order to pinpoint the eerie feeling she was suddenly getting.

Hidan nodded at her when he noticed her there as he finished his current set of weights. "You finished?" He asked, his violet gaze still intently focused on his arm.

"Yeah," Sakura murmured, looking over her shoulder at someone speaking to one of the employees at the desk. "You?"

Hidan grunted as he set the weight back onto the bench before immediately moving to crack his neck. "Yeah."

Sakura hummed in reply, obviously distracted, before turning her attention on the silver haired man still sitting on the bench in front of her. She raised her eyebrows in question when she saw him staring at her with a weird intensity she had never seen him give her before as if he was questioning her odd behavior.

"What?" She asked, gripping the ends of the towel that hung over her shoulders as a way to help ease her rising nerves. "Something on my face?"

"'Fuck is up with you?" He said suddenly, eyes narrowing as he shifted his gaze to look over Sakura's head. "Somethin' happen?"

"No, just," Sakura shrugged before turning to look at him. "I felt like someone was watching me."

Hidan raised a single brow at her words, his gaze doing a quick sweep over the immediate area before he let out an almost incredulous scoff, "If anyone does try somethin' you can handle 'em."

Sakura couldn't help the smile that threatened to spread over her features at the oddly placed compliment from the silver-haired man in front of her, going so far as to cover her mouth so he wouldn't notice or comment on it. She didn't know when Hidan had started growing a soft spot for her but she could tell from the odd comments about her 'impressive strength' to the random times he would help get anything she couldn't reach the shelves. The others have probably noticed it too, by now.

"Thanks," She murmured, falling into step beside him as they headed towards the locker room. "Five minutes?"

"Five minutes," Hidan confirmed, adding a quick nod of his head before heading into the men's locker room.

Sakura let out a shaky breath and did another glance behind her before heading into the women's locker room; normally she would take a quick shower whenever she had the time before leaving if only to feel less sticky on the way home so she could take a proper one. Deciding against it, this time, Sakura made a beeline for her locker so she could gather her things and leave as soon as possible.

As soon as she was changed and ready to go, Sakura headed towards the front desk and let out a small breath of relief at the sight of Hidan filling up a water bottle. She settled beside him while hurriedly typing up her hair into a ponytail, staring blankly out onto the floor and over the small crowd of people working out so early in the morning.

"You good?" Hidan asked, his stare focusing the tattoos that covered Sakura's arm and shoulder.

"Yeah," Sakura replied, flashing her gym partner an easy smile. "Ready when you are."

"Good, let's go then."

The ride home was silent besides the radio which blared loudly a mixtape Hidan had, according to him, borrowed from Kisame. Sakura had been pleasantly surprised that the track list had a load of songs she would normally listen to, even more, surprised that Hidan enjoyed a similar genre to her.

It was when they got home, the music turned down and the car turned off, that Sakura's phone began to ring from her gym bag. Sakura glanced over at Hidan, humming at the raised brow he was giving her while he climbed out of his car. She quickly answered it, shouldering her bag and hurried to catch up with Hidan up the steps to the front door.

"Hello?" She said hurriedly and tried to adjust the strap of her bag so it sat more comfortably on her shoulder. She glanced down at the phone when there was no immediate reply and frowned at the unknown ID that flashed for only a minute before the line disconnected. "What the fuck?"

Hidan glanced over at her as he unlocked the front door, his brow still raised in silent inquiry.

"Someone just pranks called me," Sakura said, irritation in her voice and clouding her features. "The asshole didn't say anything before hanging up."

"Weird," Hidan said, somewhat dismissive as he shoved the door open and headed inside. "Did you see the number?"

Sakura sighed and dropped her bag at the base of the stairs before stretching her arms up over her head. "It keeps popping up as unknown, so there's not really a number or anything to call back."

The silver haired man hummed in thought before disappearing into the kitchen. "Don't worry about it, if it's a thing that keeps happening let one of us know."

Letting out a tired sigh, Sakura nodded her head and grabbed her bag from the floor. She made sure to lock the front door before heading upstairs to her room, groaning with each step taken from the amount of cardio she did that morning.

"Oh, you're back," Sasori said from behind, smiling at the slight jolt Sakura had from his sudden appearance. "Sorry, how was your workout?"

"Sasori," Sakura breathed, holding her hand against her chest in a poor attempt to calm her accelerated heartbeat. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

The redhead laughed, the sound causing Sakura's cheeks to flare up in what she hoped was an after effect from her work out. Sasori apologized again, a gentle smile taking over his features as Sakura continued on to her room.

"Workout," Sakura repeated to herself, tossing her bag onto her bedroom floor by her dresser. "It was good, I started extending my cardio to stay in sync with Hidan's work out. My legs still aren't used it."

"I see," Sasori said quietly, quickly glancing over to the top of the stairs as if someone would suddenly show up. "So you've started working out with him?"

"I mean, we go to the same gym and our schedules line up enough so it makes sense," Sakura said absently, letting out a sigh as she attempted to rub the kinks out of her neck. "You should join us next time, I have a guest pass you can use if you want."

"That," Sasori said, somewhat hesitant as he focused his gaze back to Sakura. "I'm not sure that would be a good idea."

"Well, the offer's open if you change your mind." Sakura gave him a dazzling smile and headed into her room, gathering the things she would need to take a shower. "I'm going to take a shower, I didn't have the time at the gym."

"Sure, I'll be downstairs if you need me," Sasori told her, turning towards the staircase.

Sakura let out another tired sigh as she set her things in the bathroom and stared down her reflection in the mirror. Whenever she got this busy Sakura tended to forego sleep in order to get more work done and, after a couple days of forced insomnia, received dark circles beneath her eyes as a result. Humming gently, Sakura took out the ponytail she had put her hair in and frowned, the ends of her hair falling well below her shoulders. Toying with the ends, she narrowed her eyes at her reflection and tilted her head in thought.

"I should get a hair cut soon," she murmured to herself, taking another minute or two before turning on the shower.

It wasn't long until Sakura was out of the shower and drying off, taking extra care to her tattoos and hair, before slipping into dry clothes and stretching her limbs as much as she could in the somewhat cramped bathroom. She opened the door to the bathroom and let out a surprised yelp at the sight of Kisame standing in the way of the door.

"What is with everyone and startling me today?" Sakura snapped, feeling her face flush from the close proximity of the overbearing man. "Did you need something?"

Kisame let out an amused chuckle before putting his hands up in mock surrender, "Sorry, sorry, no I just needed to piss. Hidan's using the bathroom downstairs."

"Oh," Sakura said, pushing past her large roommate. She felt the heat from his skin on her arm linger a moment more than she thought it should and cleared her throat in order to make herself focus. "All yours big guy."

"Thanks, babe," Kisame said, giving Sakura a cheeky grin before locking himself in the bathroom.

It took a moment for his words to fully register in her head, her eyes widening slightly at the unfamiliar pet name. Sakura quickly glanced around the hall before scurrying to her room, almost slamming the door shut with the amount of force she put into it. She sat on her bed, anxiously chewing on her bottom lip as her brows furrowed in a mixture of confusion and frustration.

"Slip of the tongue," she said finally, turning her stare towards the door. "That's all that was."

She let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead as she leaned back against her mattress, ignoring the boisterous yelling and laughter that reached her from downstairs and through her closed door. What was she supposed to do in response to something like that? Ignore it? Ask her other roommates about it? Ask Kisame about it directly? The first one seemed to be the most likely, the latter options only spelled trouble in Sakura's mind. Better to keep it to herself in the hopes it was an accidental slip or that the blue haired man was teasing her in some way.

After taking the time to dwell on it, Sakura snatched her phone and immediately called the first person that came to mind.

"Hey, Sakura, what's up?" Ino asked on the other end, her voice sounding far away before coming in loud and clear.

"Nothing, really," Sakura murmured, switching her phone to her other ear. "Just wondering if you were free for a late lunch."

"Lunch?" Ino echoed, a pleasant hum indicating she was searching through her calendar. "Sure am, does one work for you?"

"Yeah, the usual place?"

"Of course," Ino exclaimed, excitement overcoming her tone. "I'll see you there!"

Sakura heard Ino hang up, her excited chatter to whoever she was with cut off abruptly, and let out a relieved sigh. Even if she didn't get any specific advice on the current weirdness she felt towards Kisame it would still be nice to see and chat with her friend again.


	11. Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting this chapter a day early because I don't think I'll have the time to tomorrow. I'm hoping to finish this in the next month or so and start at least two more while this one is finishing. Thank you all for the continued support and comments, they all mean so much to me!

"Sakura!" Ino exclaimed, waving her friend over to where she sat near a window. The blonde gave the girl a wide smile as she settled into the seat across from her and nestled her chin into her manicured hands. "It's been such a long time since we had lunch together, is it your day off?"

Sakura returned Ino's enthusiastic smile and mimicked her posture, resting her chin in the palm of her hand as she rested her other arm on the edge of the table the two were sitting at. "Yeah, if I didn't call to plan something it would never have happened."

Ino rolled her eyes and took a sip from her lemon water she had ordered minutes before Sakura had arrived. "Whatever you say, billboard brow."

"Excuse me," the waitress spoke softly, gaining the attention of both women. "Are you ready to order now?"

The two gave their orders and waited in silence until Sakura got her drink of choice and their side dishes before going into varying detail about their respective work and everything else they could think of they didn't get to talk about the last time they had seen one another. Ino went on and on about one of the guys she worked with was giving her more than obvious hints he was interested in her.

"And I'd be flattered if it weren't for the fact he knows I'm seeing someone," Ino said, her brows furrowed in irritation while thinking about it before snapping to focus on Sakura. "Anyway, enough about me! What's going on with Sakura."

"Well," Sakura started, taking a brief drink from her soda. "Kisame called me 'babe' earlier this morning when I got home from the gym."

"Oh my god, really?" Ino hissed, leaning over the table with an intense interest in her gaze. "Does he like you?"

"I don't know!" Sakura exclaimed, exaggerated as she rested her forehead in the palms of her hands. "It could get weird with the others if he does. I'm so busy with work and other shit I don't have time to think about relationships or if people like me that way."

Ino nodded, a hint of sympathy in her eyes. "Especially since your last one wasn't exactly a walk in the park."

"Don't remind me," Sakura murmured, her tone sounding empty at the sour memories. "Please."

"Of course, sorry," Ino replied softly, reached over to pat her friends' hand soothingly. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Ignore it, probably."

Ino sighed and looked her friend over in silence as she took another drink from her water, humming in thought. "Good call, at least for now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, unless it happens again it's probably nothing. There's no point in worrying over nothing."

Sakura nodded, letting out a strained sigh before meeting the intense gaze of her friend who raised a brow in response to the silent question in Sakura's green eyes.

"Something else you wanted to share?"

"I don't know, but it's too annoying and weirdly consistent to be nothing."

"What is?"

"Well," Sakura started, pushing the leftover food on her plate around as she thought her words through. "I've been getting weird, anonymous calls on my phone."

"Explain," Ino said simply, stirring the ice in her glass as she focused her attention on the pink haired girl in front of her. "Anonymous how."

Sakura showed Ino her phone, the unknown contact showing up throughout her call history multiple times.

"Prank calls?" Ino inquired, pausing to really stare at the list of Unknown. "Miss dial?"

"That's what I thought, but it's too scheduled to be that? I don't know, this morning it felt like someone was watching me while I was at the gym."

Ino hummed and tapped her nails against the table as she thought, absently sliding the phone over back to its owner. "Have you told anyone else about them?"

"Hidan does and so does Itachi, I think," Sakura said, feeling the hairs on her neck begin to stand on end. "Should I let the others know, too?"

"Maybe," Ino said. "I suggest changing your number, though, and only let a few people know that need it. It's annoying and creepy but phone calls don't really mean anything if it's this random."

Sakura nodded and let out a sigh, "Thanks, Ino, I really appreciate it."

"I'm happy to help, Sakura, that's what friends are for!" Ino exclaimed, clapping her hands together once. "On a lighter note, when can I officially meet those hot roommates of yours?"

"Didn't you meet them at your party?"

"Sure I did, but I didn't get to meet them. C'mon Sakura, throw a girl a bone." Ino begged, fluttering her lashes in her friend's direction. "Pretty please?"

"Fine, fine," Sakura grunted, attempting to keep the smile off of her face and out of her voice. "I'll see if it's okay with the others for you to hang out this Friday, it'll be weird if you show up unannounced."

"That's fair," Ino said with a grin. "I'm not letting you weasel yourself out of this, you know. I'll meet those boys sooner or later."

Sakura rolled her eyes, finally allowing a smile to form on her features. "Whatever, Ino-pig."

"I'll see you later, billboard brow. It was nice catching up."

Ino gave her friend another smile before leaving the small restaurant and going on her way. Sakura took another minute to herself as she waited for her leftovers to be boxed up and, eventually, left to go home.

As Sakura was opening the front door, she tilted her head at the sound of hushed voices coming from the kitchen. She hummed as she hung up her jacket and bag by the door, ready to announce her arrival back home when she heard the distinct growl of Kisame's voice go up an octave as he freaked out about something.

"Don't worry about it, yeah?" Deidara said with a laugh, voice muffled only slightly. "Maybe she'll think it was a slip-up or something."

Kisame shushed him loudly, forcing Sakura to unconsciously cover her mouth to keep from any noise peeping out from her and let out an exhausted sounding sigh. "God, she looked so freaked out! What the hell am I supposed to do if she doesn't wanna talk to me anymore?"

"Well," Deidara hummed, obviously amused by his roommate's current situation. "If she acts on it then you're fine. If she pretends it didn't happen then you know she doesn't feel the same."

Sakura quickly shut the door, as loudly as possible, and hurriedly announced she was back before heading to the kitchen. She gave the boys in the kitchen a look of mock surprise, which quickly turned genuine when she noticed Itachi lingering by the fridge and forced a friendly smile as she gave a quick wave.

"Yo, what's with the party in the kitchen?" she asked, reaching behind to put her hair up into a ponytail.

Kisame gave the others an uneasy glance before forcing a cheeky grin onto his features, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "How was your lunch out?"

Deidara feigned a cough to hide his sudden bout of laughter, the smirk evident on his features as Kisame sent him a bone chilling glare.

"It was good," Sakura said, squeezing between her roommates to put her leftovers in the fridge. "Nothing too exciting."

"Did you bring anything back for us?" Deidara asked, blowing a stray piece of hair out of his face.

"Uh, no. If you wanted something you should go get it yourself," Sakura said with a laugh, putting a hand on her hip. "What did you guys do while I was gone? Gossip?"

Deidara snickered at the sight of Kisame's face flushing while Itachi let out a small sigh.

"We were just discussing ideas for dinner tonight," Itachi offered, his gaze focused on his friend before turning to Sakura. "Did you have any suggestions?"

"Oh," Sakura hummed in thought as she leaned her hip against the counter. "I'm not sure."

The three boys exchanged glances while Sakura preoccupied herself with a spot on the floor as she thought, her brows narrowing slightly. Kisame let out a soft sigh of relief as Deidara snickered to himself.

"Don't worry about it, Sakura," Itachi said after a moment of silence and settled his hand on her shoulder. "We'll come up with something."

"Oh, if you're sure," Sakura said, looking between the three. "Sorry, the only thing I can really think of is pizza."

"Pizza," Deidara echoed and put his hand to his chin in thought. "That does sound good, yeah?"

Sakura shrugged, leaning back onto the counter as she spoke. "I just remembered, my friend Ino wanted to stop by later Friday night for a movie night or something."

"That's fine," Itachi said, a small smile gracing his features. "We appreciate you letting us know beforehand."

"That Yamanaka girl?" Kisame asked. "There isn't going to be some kick-ass party, will there?"

"No, no!" Sakura said, waving her hands to deny his words. "It'll just be her, I promise!"

"That's good, while we don't mind company it can be bothersome to have multiple people over at once while everyone's here, yeah?" Deidara said, fishing out some leftovers from the fridge.

"Right," Sakura replied, getting ready to head up to her room. "Thank you, I appreciate it."


	12. Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> new character introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAA sorry for the long awaited/long overdue update! I just recently started a new job so I've been super busy adjusting to my new work schedule and just trying to balance everything out. ALSO trying to come up with how exactly I want to keep the plot going because what happened was...I wrote a chapter and was super happy with how it came out but the timing/pace of it was a lot faster than I wanted it to be so I needed to come up with how to transition from here to there. Still working on that, unfortunately. This update might be short but I figured something was better than nothing and keeping it in purgatory. Updates will continue but they will probably be sporadic and timed weirdly for when I have the time off of work to write and figure things out where I want to go next.
> 
> Thank you all for the continued support;; I hope you continue to stay with me until I can reach the end of this fic!

It was the middle of the night when Sakura heard rapid knocking from downstairs paired with the voices of Itachi and Sasori and the flurry of their steps as they rushed towards the front door. She lifted her head, keeping back a yawn as she grimaced at the bright light from her phone. One in the morning, why was someone making so much noise so early? She ran a hand through her hair as she got up out of bed and poked her head out from behind her door, yawning again as she heard the voices of her roommates down below.

"Sakura, did we wake you?" Itachi asked from his spot near the base of the stairs.

It looked like she hadn't been the only one to have been awakened so suddenly.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked, a yawn punctuating the end of her sentence. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're fine," Itachi sounded just as tired as she felt. "Everything's okay."

"Oh, okay," Sakura murmured, peering through heavy lids at the heavily scarred man that was staring up at her in return. "Who's that?"

"Kakuzu," Hidan grumbled, his arms crossed over his chest. "He isn't staying long."

"Who is this?" Kakuzu asked, his voice raspy from what sounded like disuse. "She pays rent, right?"

Sakura couldn't help the scoff of disbelief, even through how tired she was. "Is he serious?"

"No," Sasori said.

"Yes," Kakuzu said at the same time, his and Sasori's voices overlapping.

"Fuck off." Sakura said, her haze of sleep beginning to dampen.

Hidan let out a laugh, making a show to throw his head back and everything.

"You fuck off, too," she said, a scowl forming on her face. "If you're gonna party make sure it's a quiet one. I have work in the morning."

"Sorry to wake you, Sakura," Itachi said, offering as much of an apologetic smile as he could through his own tired weariness.

She waved him off and started up the stairs again, more than ready to crash for the second time that night in order to get the sleep she so desired. Sakura was halfway up when she heard the strange man mumble something beneath his breath. Something deep inside of her brain told her to let it go, that it wasn't worth it; but that little, tiny voice was immediately shushed as her tired brain went from a passive irritation to an irrational anger as she turned her glare to face the group at the bottom of the stairs. Stopping halfway on the stair case, Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and turned her entire body to face her house mates and the stranger they were talking to.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice clear as crystal as she called down to the group of men. "I'm afraid I didn't catch what it was you said."

The man, Kakuzu, gave her a look of surprise before his dark, beady eyes looked for any possible explanation for her sudden shift of attitude in his friends.

"It was nothing," Sasori said immediately, hoping to settle the sudden turn of events. "He was just talking to us."

"Then I'm sure he wouldn't mind repeating it. Kakuzu, was it? I'm sure the others here are very familiar with you. I, however, am not, and I don't appreciate random visits in the middle of the night when people have a schedule to keep."

"Sakura--"

"No, it isn't a one-way thing where I tell you about people coming over and you don't think to do the same. I don't care if this weirdo is here, just don't wake me up in the middle of the goddamned night." Sakura interrupted, her ire turning towards Deidara. "Glad we're all on the same page."

Kakuzu continued to remain silent, his brows high on his forehead as he quietly watched the small exchange and only turned his attention to the others when Sakura had continued her ascent up the wooden steps.

"Does Pein know about that one?" he asked, an impressed glint shining through in his eye. "She has spirit, I'll give her that."

"He does," Sasori said, glancing up to where Sakura had disappeared up on the second floor. "Sakura is very--"

"Time is money, Sasori," Kakuzu said, taking the initiative to head into the dining room. "We need to discuss some things."

It was an hour later when Sakura heard someone knock gently on her bedroom door before it creaked open just slightly. She had been unable to go back to sleep and instead decided to sit at her desk so she could work on some rough sketches for a few of her clients. She looked up from her work and squinted into the dark hallway to try and tell who it was, she frowned when the figure in the hallway said nothing.

"Yes?" She asked, moving to set her sketch book and pencil aside and get a better look to greet whoever it was.

"I apologize for disturbing you," Itachi said from the hall, taking a moment before entering her room. "And for waking you up, we weren't aware Kakuzu would be arriving tonight."

Sakura let out a sigh and shifted in her chair as she motioned for him to sit down. "I should apologize for snapping at you guys, I let my anger get the best of me."

Itachi only offered a small, amused smile as he took a seat across from her on her bed. "I think that Kakuzu is lucky to not have been punched by you, Hidan still brings it up every now and again."

Sakura chuckled and started picking at the ends of her hair, a slight frown beginning to mar her usually calm features. "Who is Kakuzu? You've never mentioned him before."

She swore she almost saw him shrug before deciding last minute not to, and instead saw Itachi shift to sit more comfortably.

"Kakuzu," Itachi started, pausing to visibly think about how he should word his next sentence. "Is more like an accountant or bookkeeper than anything else. We belong to an organization called Akatsuki, which I'm sure you were aware of when you moved in."

"Right," Sakura said, feeling the tips of her ears heat up from the fact that no, she didn't know they were part of Akatsuki. "So why is he here?"

"When Sasori began the steps to get you moved in, he had to inform our leader about it so we could continue to live on our own. It is.. quite difficult to explain in its entirety," Itachi said, his features softening as he stared into Sakura's attentive gaze. "But perhaps Sasori and I can make the time to better explain it to you at a later date."

Sakura nodded, absently reaching over to pick up one of her ink pens to help keep her hands occupied. "So he was here tonight, because?"

"He claims to have just wanted to make sure you really were employed and had signed the living contract he had given Sasori."

"I see," she murmured, glancing over at her bedroom door.

"The rest of the group wanted to make sure you weren't too upset about being woken up," Itachi continued. "I hope everything is alright?"

Sakura nodded, refusing to glance at her phone and instead decided to keep

her stare even with her dark haired roommates. "Yeah, everything's great."

"That is good to hear," he said, almost like he didn't quite believe her, before letting out a quick sigh and moving to stand from his spot on her bed. "I should leave you to rest now, good night."

"Night Itachi," Sakura said with a strained smile. "See you in the morning."


	13. Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mystery packages with no idea who they're from can never really be a good thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowie look who updated lol. but for real, I've been busy with work and the rush of the holiday season. It also doesn't help that this was written a long ass time ago and I felt like I was jumping/moving too fast in the story for my liking aaaand realizing I didn't know how to properly connect last chapter and this one I decided to just fuck it and upload anyway and try to keep the story moving as best as I can. I have the next chapter started but I honestly don't know when I'll be able to finish since I have a lot of family stuff happening as well...in the meantime I've been posting some second person/reader inserts to try my hand at a new style of writing so check those out if you're interested. anyways;;; I hope you like this chapter ;a;

The next few days leading up to that Friday were largely uneventful for Sakura. She went to work, worked out with Hidan, and spent the rest of her time at home. The mysterious phone calls became much more sporadic and random, giving her no more ease of mind then if they would just stop completely.

Sakura had thought the calls were more annoying than anything else, even if something in the back of her mind was screaming at her to take it more seriously. They were only phone calls, after all, and relatively harmless ones.

It wasn't until she received a call from Karin Friday afternoon about their being packages for her at the apartment, weeks after she had already moved out and was settled in her new home. Karin seemed a little annoyed by it, understandably, but sounded just a little off over the phone.

"Please come get your packages," Karin said after a moment. "Did you forget to change the address when ordering something?"

"Packages?" Sakura repeated, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"There's stuff here for you," Karin snapped. "I don't see a return address on them, though."

"I'll have Naruto pick them up for me if that's okay. I'm a little busy with work right now."

"I don't care," Karin said, sounding more irritated than usual. "Just get them out of here."

When Sakura hung up, she glanced over at Sai who had taken his lunch break later in the day and saw him staring at her. She rose a brow in question and met his gaze, silently challenging him to say something rude or inappropriate.

"Is there something wrong, Sakura?" Sai asked, his features mimicking hers.

"I don't think so," she admitted. "Karin just told me I had mail at my old place."

"Mail?" Sai repeated, confused. "Why would you have mail sent to your old address?"

"I don't, someone sent it to me."

"I see, perhaps it is someone wanting to surprise you with something and was not aware of your move."

Sakura nodded and gave him a half shrug in response, his words causing the gears in her head to begin to turn.

Someone who didn't know she had moved? Someone who was aware of her schedule enough, or possibly conflicting with her own, that they wouldn't call her during her work hours? Sakura was sure that if anyone knew about her moving they would have known by now.

"Sakura, is everything okay?"

She jumped with a start and swiveled her head to look at her boss and mentor, Kakashi. He rose a questioning brow and motioned for her to follow him, which she thankfully did, into the back office. He sat back in his chair and waited for Sakura to take a seat on one of the stools by the door after she closed the door.

"What's on your mind?" he asked, resting his head against his hand while patiently waiting for her answer.

"I," Sakura began, immediately at a loss for words. Should she make something up? Or just come out and tell him? She bit her lip, mentally mulling it over before letting out a tired sigh. "I've been getting weird calls for a few weeks now."

"Does anyone else know about these phone calls?"

"Ino does," she murmured, moving her stare down to her fidgeting hands. "And my housemates do."

"Sakura, I would let the authorities know as soon as possible. Even if they can't do anything they will at least have a record of it in case it becomes more serious."

"I know, Kakashi," Sakura murmured. "But I really can't bring myself to ask for that kind of help when it hasn't gotten that bad yet."

"It's better to do it now before it gets any worse, Sakura," Kakashi told her sternly. He waited a moment before softening his features and turned in his chair to better face his desk. "If you need anything please let me know, I will be more than happy to help in any way I can."

"Thank you, Kakashi, I appreciate it." Sakura gave him a small smile and started to leave, stopping at the sound of Kakashi's voice again.

"I know this must be scary for you, but if you can't call the authorities about this then let the people around you know so they can help protect you."

Sakura felt her neck heat up and nodded silently before exiting the hall of the tattoo parlor. She let out a trembling sigh and barely took a step before Kakashi called out to her a second time.

"Your schedule is open from now until we close, go home early and rest."

Sakura nodded and packed her things, doing just that as she waited for Naruto to bring her the packages. When he finally arrived, the hyperactive blonde didn't even bother to hide his look of genuine curiosity as he put the varying sized boxes in her front seat.

"What are they, anyway?" Naruto asked, giving her door a firm shut when he was finished.

"Not sure," Sakura admitted sheepishly. "Someone sent me mystery stuff."

"Oh, okay." Naruto nodded and offered her genuine grin. "I'll see you tomorrow at work, right?"

"Yeah, I won't be in until later in the afternoon though," Sakura told him as she started her car.

"Nice! It feels like it's been forever since we last worked together!"

"You've been on vacation, remember?" Sakura said, giving him a teasing smile. "I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto."

"Bet on it!"

Sakura let out a gentle laugh as she watched him give her a half wave and walk back to his car, pulling out of the parking lot ahead of her. She sat there in silence for a minute, her fingers tapping idly on the steering wheel as she stared down at the mysterious packages that were now sitting in her passenger seat. None of the boxes were marked except for a single label with Sakura's name written in a neat cursive, there were no addresses or markings that gave the impression they had been mailed. She bit her lip, unknowingly gripping the steering wheel that her knuckles turned white and she her nails began to give from the hard leather.

She picked up her phone, ignoring the sudden wave of nerves that washed over her as she dialed Hidan's number. After about three rings into the call, she suddenly realized she was calling during her work hours and that she had no idea what her roommate's schedule looked like during the day while she was at work. Sakura was about ready to hang up, her breathing becoming rapid just as the other end picked up.

"What is it?" Hidan asked, clearly irritated by the sudden call. "I thought you said no calls during work, so why the fuck--"

"Hidan," Sakura interrupted, her grip on her phone tightening at the visible waver in her voice. "I think someone's stalking me."

"What the fuck?" Hidan asked after a moment of silence, his voice fading for only a second as a very muffled 'shut the fuck up' could be heard through the receiver. His voice was louder this time, obviously meant to cover up the sounds happening in the background. "Are you sure?"

"My last roommate called me and said I had a bunch of packages addressed to me," she said, glancing back at the stack of boxes set beside her. "You said to let you know if things got any worse with the calls and-"

"Fuck, girl, calm down. Take a breath." Hidan said. "Did you tell the others about it?"

"Itachi knows, I think," she said, forcing herself to breathe in through her nose. "What do I do?"

"Go home, give your boss some fuck all excuse and go home. Itachi and Deidara should be there right now, I'll let one of them know you're on your way. Don't stop for a fucking thing, got it?"

"Right, okay," she nodded her head even though she knew he couldn't see her. "I'll be home soon."

Hidan said a quick goodbye before yelling something, his sentence cutting off midway as he hung up.

Sakura let out a shaky breath and started her car, preparing for the luckily short drive home when she heard the sudden beginning of her ringtone. She let out a yelp of surprise, her hand pressed firmly against her rapidly beating heart before she tentatively took hold of her phone to see who was calling her. Her face paled immediately as she saw the Unknown number flashing on the contact screen.

"Oh my god, no," she breathed, locking her car doors before she hurriedly pulled out of the parking lot of her work and headed home.

The drive back didn't give her any peace like it normally did, her phone notifying her that whoever her stalker was had called one more time before the screen went black the entire rest of the way. As soon as she pulled up to her usual spot beside the house, Sakura was more than happy to see both Itachi and Deidara waiting for her on the sidewalk and even happier at the relieved looks they shared before hurrying to either side of her car.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Itachi asked as soon as she opened her car door, putting a hand on her arm in an attempt to help calm her fraying nerves. "Did something happen?"

"Those are the boxes, yeah?" Deidara asked from the other side, peering in through the car window at the packages still sitting on the passenger side.

"Yeah," Sakura said, letting out a shaky breath as her gaze went to the blonde and the dark haired man beside her. "I'm fine, just a little frazzled."

Itachi gave her a frown as she attempted to laugh it off, her voice trailing into nervous silence as she began to fidget under his arm. "Come on," he said, closing her door as he started walking her up to the house. "Deidara, get the boxes and park her car in the garage. It's better to be safe than sorry."

Deidara gave a brief nod before taking the keys from Sakura and settled himself in the driver's seat, getting ready to do exactly as he was told.

"Whoever it was called me twice on my way here. And Karin said the packages have been showing up every other day for a few weeks."

"It's a good thing you called Hidan," Itachi told her, his voice reassuringly calm as he made sure the front door was locked up tightly behind them. "The others should be home later tonight."

Sakura nodded, following Itachi's lead as he set her down in the living room. She let out a shaky breath and attempted to calm herself, deepening her breathing as she listened to Itachi move around in the kitchen doing who knew what while Deidara dropped the odd amount of packages onto the dining room table.

"All good, yeah?" he said, blowing a stray piece of blonde hair out of his face as he settled in one of the chairs. He took one of the boxes into his hands and examined the packaging and label, his eyes narrowing as he shook it close to his ear. "Are you gonna open them?"

"I don't think that is a good idea," Itachi said from the kitchen doorway, arms crossed as he stared his roommate down. "Only if Sakura is okay with it."

Sakura bit her lip, visibly wincing at the already abused piece of skin she had been nibbling on throughout the day. "Do it, Deidara," she told him.

The artist nodded and pulled out a pocket knife and began slicing through the tape that was keeping the box closed. He hummed as both Sakura and Itachi watched him, both with vastly different expressions on their features.

"What the hell?" Deidara said, horrified surprise evident in both his face and voice. He immediately turned to Itachi who, in turn, took a step to look over the blonde's shoulder to gaze into the box.

"What?" Sakura asked, wringing her hands nervously. "What is it?"

Itachi wrinkled his nose, his steely gaze quickly meeting with Sakura's worried stare before he grabbed the box and headed towards the side door. "Open the others, Deidara. I'll be right back."

"Deidara?" Sakura said, her voice rising as she turned her head to stare at her roommate sitting at the table. "What was it?"

She began to grow worried, even more so when Deidara refused to meet her eyes as he continued to open box after box. Sakura couldn't help the visible flinch each time he stabbed his knife into the slits and pulled, the sound of tape being cut grating as he refused to speak to her about the contents. After the third box, Sakura emboldened herself and stole a box from her friends' grip to search what was inside.

"Sakura!" Deidara yelled, his voice almost hysteric as he tried to wrestle it back. He knew he was too late when the pink haired girl covered her mouth in order to muffle her own cries of pain. She looked up at him, tears forming in her eyes as she put the box back on the table. "Itachi, get in here!"

The dark haired male rushed in from the garage, the firm line in his brow increasing as he took in the sudden distraught appearance of Sakura while Deidara tried to comfort her with his hands raised helplessly. Itachi immediately brought the crying girl in his arms and placed both of his hands firmly on each side of her face to force her to look at him. She held his gaze, the sob that escaped her lips tore his heart in two as he pulled her into a protective embrace.

"Don't look, Sakura," he murmured, one of his hands moving to stroke her hair gently. "Kisame and Sasori will be home soon, and Hidan is bringing someone with him that should hopefully help."

Sakura nodded mutely, too broken up to really form a comprehensible sentence as her body began to shudder along with her tears. She clutched desperately onto Itachi's shirt, forcing her head as far away from the table as she physically could.

"We're here," Itachi murmured, motioning for Deidara to take the previously abandoned box to the garage. "It'll be okay."


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The appearance of two new challengers!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long time no see! I've been dealing with a lot of stuff and also in general haven't written anything since my last update tbh;; a couple of questions have been answered but only to reveal more. a relatively short chapter, I think, but at least it's something to hopefully help me get back into the flow of things. thanks for reading xo

"What the actual fuck?" Kisame yelled, the rise in his voice causing Sakura to flinch from her seat on the couch. "Who the hell sends shit like that?"

"We still don't know," Itachi said, his voice much quieter from inside the kitchen as he attempted to calmly explain the situation to his friend. "The rest of the things they sent, whomever the culprit is, are in the garage."

Kisame let out a heavy, exhausted sigh as he glanced over to Sakura who was currently being doted on by both Sasori and Deidara as they made sure she was okay. The red head glanced over his shoulder at the much taller male in the kitchen, motioning with his head for Kisame to come over to replace him. The darker haired male went to Sakura's side immediately, replacing Sasori as he got up to talk to Itachi in his stead.

"You okay?" he murmured, tenderly placing his hand on her quivering shoulder.

Sakura glanced up at her roommate and gave him a weak smile. "I'm okay, just... a bit shaken up, I guess."

"That's an understatement, yeah?" Deidara said, meeting Kisame's gaze momentarily before turning his stare to meet with Sakura's. "It's a messed up situation."

Kisame began to rub his palm along her upper back, hoping to soothe her if only a little bit. "Hidan should be here with Pein and Konan any minute."

"Good, if anyone can figure it out it'll be Pein, yeah?" Deidara said, standing up to stretch his arms and back. He lay a gentle hand on Sakura's pink hair before giving her head a slight ruffle and walked away. "Be back soon."

Sakura wiped her face with the sleeve of her jacket and nodded silently, leaning over to rest her head on Kisame's shoulder. She didn't have anything to say, not after seeing what was inside of those boxes, she couldn't even if she really wanted to. The whole event had sent her into shock.

"Who could have done this?" Itachi asked Sasori, visibly disturbed and deep in thought as he tried to rack his brain for any kind of sign of who it could be.

"I'm not sure," Sasori murmured in reply, glancing over at the pair on the couch. "Sakura hasn't said a word since opening one of those boxes."

"We should go through them and see if we can find anything on who might be stalking Sakura, yeah?" Deidara said as he joined the other two near the kitchen. "It'll help save Pein and Konan some time."

Itachi nodded and glanced back at Kisame and Sakura huddled together on the couch, the gears turning in his head as he took note of how his close friend held the pink haired girl protectively against his side as the two watched something on the television screen. "Let's get started, let Kisame know and join us in the garage."

"Yes, sir," Deidara said.

In the garage, Itachi couldn't help the face of absolute disgust cross his features as he began to rifle through one of the boxes. This one and many others contained polaroids of Sakura going about her day-to-day business. A lot of the photos were of Sakura at her gym, getting in and out of her car, working out, entering and exiting the woman's locker room. A few of them had pictures of her and Hidan together, all with his face deliberately and violently scribbled out. They grew a lot more disturbing; photos of Sakura at work, interacting with her close friends, and some of her through the windows of her previous apartment. There were also several typed notes varying from creepy love letters to borderline threats at her life.

Itachi grit his teeth as he held the box that Sakura had initially peeked into that contained a lock of her hair and several photos of her showering at her gym. 

Sasori took notice of his friend's stiff posture and let out a strangled breath before forcibly removing the box from his hands. "Maybe you should join Sakura on the couch, Itachi." The red head suggested softly before pushing his room mate back towards the house. "Deidara and I can take care of it until the others show up."

The taller man only nodded and left silently, closing the door to the garage firmly behind him. Itachi quickly made his way to the couch in the living room and sat on the other side of Sakura. He made sure to take a moment to study her face and frowned at her reddened and irritated eyes and pale complexion.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, his voice a soft whisper as he placed a hand on her arm. "I can make you something small to eat so you at least have some energy."

"Okay," Sakura murmured, her glazed eyes focusing on the touch on her arm. "Thank you, Itachi."

He only nodded and exchanged a quick glance with Kisame before leaving momentarily.

"Do you want to watch something else, Sakura?" Kisame asked, his voice strained only slightly as he struggled to not get too heated by the situation. "Listen to some music, maybe?"

She shook her head, her stare returning towards the screen that was currently playing some commercials as Itachi came back with a small sandwich.

After a half hour of sitting in silence, Hidan through open the door and was quickly followed by two pierced indiviudals with intense eyes: the taller man, with grayed eyes and orange hair remained standing as the woman knelt in front of Sakura and held her hands.

"It will be okay, Sakura. I'm Konan," the woman said gently, her thumbs stroking the skin of Sakura's palms. "We're here to help."

Sakura let out a shaky breath and nodded, promptly biting her lip in an attempt to keep herself from crying.

Konan gave a short nod before standing and turning her stare towards her partner, Pein. The orange haired man returned her stare for a couple moments before he gave his attention to the gathering men.

"Let's get started, then."

**Author's Note:**

> thank you everyone for the continued support and love! it really does mean a lot and helps me keep this story going! lots of love from me to you, thank you so much for reading! xo


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